


New Girl in Town

by Emmetje



Series: The Rachel Grey Mysteries [1]
Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV), Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Original Character(s), Original Female Character(s) - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-16
Updated: 2015-08-26
Packaged: 2018-02-17 15:43:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 37,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2314844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emmetje/pseuds/Emmetje
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sixteen year old Rachel Grey is forced to move away from sunny France and to rainy Forks when her adoptive parents decide it is time for a change. Life there is anything but easy for her, since she is nursing a broken heart and is trying desperately not to draw attention to herself. When she meets the mysterious Cullens, they are as curious about her as she is about them because the pale looking models from Hell aren't the only ones allowed to keep secrets. Her curiosity and search for the truth quickly causes her to end up in all kinds of trouble and she soon finds out that things are never easy or simple when Vampires are involved.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Why hello to all you people who have found this story and decided to give it a try.  
> For those of you who are thinking "this sounds all too familiar, where have I read this before?" you're right! This story is also published on fanfiction.net, this one is just slightly different because I wasn't entirely happy with it anymore and decided to make some changes. Don't worry, I will update the one on fanfiction soon too.  
> For those of you who are new, I say "welcome".  
> I started writing this story about four, five years ago. I was still young and innocent and had no experience in writing whatsoever but I enjoyed it so I wrote the first version and posted it on fanfiction.net in Dutch (yes, that would be wise to mention: my mother tongue is Dutch so if you come across any errors, spelling or grammar, let me know. I learn from my mistakes).  
> About a year ago, I took another look at the first story and God, did I hate it! I never stopped writing and my style and English improved so I decided to rewrite the story and post it in English. The beginning still sucked, which is why I'm rewriting it again, but how further the story progressed, the better I started writing and the more I started to like it.  
> So that's a bit of background information. If any of you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask them. I will gladly answer them (if I can).  
> Okay, on with this story. It follows the events of the Twilight Saga (I switch between the movies and the books) with a bit of twist (a big twist). Bella Swan does exist and will eventually make an appearance but that appearance is still miles away. Also, Rachel's past and personality are different then hers or so I like to think. You will be the judge of that. I try to make her as different from Bella as I can (I don't like Bella very much).  
> As noticed, the story starts off with a prologue, very similair to the Twilight prologue but still a tad different. Under the chapter title is a sentence that is also often used later on the chapter. It's just something I added. I don't know why. Let me know what you think of it by commenting. I don't care if it is good or bad, just let me know.  
> Criticism is more than welcome, you learn from it, and also let me know if you stop reading it because you don't like something. It's exactly that that helps me to develop my writing.  
> And if the thought about Rachel being a Mary Sue, please let me know. Please!! I'm trying very hard to prevent her from becoming a Mary Sue.  
> 

"Dying for someone you love is a good way to go. It's brave, noble, slightly foolish and incredibly cliché, but still, it's a good way to go."

 

* * *

 

She was nailed to the ground. Her eyes were widened, her body trembling. The unmistakeable grip of fear wrapped itself around her and tightened, making her feel like she was suffocating.  
The hunter slowly came closer. A ridiculous smile was plastered on his face like glue and no matter what would happen, it would stay there.  
She had never really thought about death or about how she would die, although life had given her plenty of reasons to think about it. Especially in the last few months.  
Once she had imagined it would be of old age, passing away peacefully in her sleep, after she had lived a life filled with joy and happiness. A life with a man by her side who she loved and who loved her, a life with children and grandchildren. A life of which she had been grateful for, so grateful that when death would claim her, she wouldn’t be scared.  
Another time she had thought it would by the hand of another person. A person who had found out about what she had done, about what she could do. A person who became frightened of her and decided he/she would do the world a favour by becoming a murderer and ending her life.  
But most of her life she had imagined it would come entirely unexpected. Quickly and quietly while she would be walking through the streets, all on her own. A simple hand grabbing her wrist, pulling her into a dark alley, and after the simple flick a wrist, it would be all over for her. After all, it was just that easy to snap one’s neck.  
She stared, still with widened eyes and trembling body, at the hunter. How a room that big could still feel so small. He was at the far end of it, staring back at her with an almost friendly look in his eyes, yet it felt like he was right in front of her and breathing down on her. She could almost feel the cold radiating from him.  
The smile, which she really started to hate, was still plastered on his face and for a small moment she thought about snapping at him, just to wipe it off his face.  
But she didn’t. She stayed quiet. She remained where she was, staring at him with her eyes widened and her body trembling.  
She had never imagined death would come like this. That she would willingly walk towards it. Never had she imagined she would chose to die. But she had. And, while she stared into his almost friendly eyes, she knew she had made the right choice. Dying for someone she loved, someone who didn’t deserve death while she did, seemed like a good way to go. Brave, noble, slightly foolish and incredibly cliché but still, a good way.  
The hunter moved again and slowly crept closer, causing her to swallow. Her heart told her none of this would have happened if she hadn’t broken up with her ex-boyfriend but her mind disagreed by reminding her heart that something completely different but just as dangerous would have happened in the end as well.  
Her eyes started to tear when she thought of her ex. How would he taken the news of her death? Would he mourn? Would he care at all? Whatever it would be, she hoped he would get over her death quickly and become happy with the love of his life. That was what he deserved, to be truly happy. That was all she wanted for him.  
The hunter reached her and looked down on her, still with the same almost friendly look in his eyes. She swallowed and forced herself to stop crying.  
This was it. It was over.  
She closed her eyes and titled her head a little to the side. “Just make it fast.”


	2. The Dreaded First Day

**Chapter 1: The Dreaded First Day**

“Nothing interesting ever happened in small towns, unless one counted the marriage between high school sweethearts as interesting and most residents of small towns thought so.”

* * *

Once upon a time there was a small town called Forks. It was laying in the state of Washington, the United States of America, near Seattle.

Forks, hidden away in the shadows of high mountains and a never ending forest, wasn’t the typical small and mysterious town, even though its location did give it that mysterious factor.

The only mystery was how it was possible that the population had switched from 3120 to 3123 residents.

Or perhaps the real mystery was how it was possible that the town still had residents. One would think that spending 240 days a year in the rain and the remaining 125 days in the snow, would be that depressing that people would leave.

Even their very own chief of police and Forks resident since birth Charlie Swan hadn’t been able to stand the weather any longer and had said goodbye to rainy Forks and hello to high temperatures all year around Phoenix.

Of course, that was exactly the reason why the first mystery wasn’t really a mystery anymore. Charlie Swan had left Forks and it had meant that the residents of Forks remaining behind had to find a new chief of police.

And, surprisingly, that search hadn’t been very hard when a couple had come into town with the desire to move there: thirty-seven year old Charles Grey, chief of police in La Baule, France, and a cop by blood, and his thirty-five year old wife Janet Grey, fulltime nurse and a ray of sunshine bottled in a human being.

It had been too good to be true but no one had cared. Charles Grey had been offered the job and he had accepted without even a moment of hesitation.

They had moved to the small depressing town in January and that was when the slight “too good to be true” became a real “too good to be true”, for they brought along their sixteen year old daughter Rachel Grey.

To the outside world, they looked like the perfect family.

There was the handsome father with the short black hair and the green eyes, standing around 6’0” in height and with a body that screamed “I work out”.

Then there was the kind mother with the long blond hair and the perfect baby blue eyes, standing 5’3” in height and with the body of a supermodel.

And then there was the “smart” and “goody two shoes” daughter with the brown curling hair and the dark brown eyes, standing 5’4” in height and with the body that any other teenage girl would die for.

They were the perfect family, if one completely forgot about the fact that Charles and Janet weren’t really Rachel’s parents, she refused to call them “mom” and “dad”, she used to spend more time on the back of a motorcycle that had a speed that would leave any parent worried then spending time at school, and that the three were anything but normal.

But people didn’t know that, yet, and were just happy that the Christmas break was over and the three newcomers would all have their very first days in Forks society.

And like with any other “normal” family, the day began with a _bang_.

 

* * *

 

 _Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep._ **BANG!**

An alarm that had been doing nothing but his sacred duty as an alarm to wake up its owner, was thrown against an empty wall and landed on the ground in a million pieces, falling silent on impact.

The hand responsible for the throwing disappeared under some thick purple covers, leaving no evidence behind about what happened except, of course, the victim.

A groan slipped out from under the covers and moments later they were pushed back, revealing a sixteen year old girl who was suffering from a bed head. Her eyes, narrowed in annoyance and tiredness, scanned the room and narrowed even more when she registered where she was.

Another groan slipped from her lips and she hid her face in her pillows, muttering curses that weren’t really audible due to the contact with the pillow.

“Darling!” called a sugar sweet and way too cheerful voice from downstairs, causing the girl to press her face even further into the pillows in a desperate try to suffocate herself. “Are you up? You don’t want to be late for your first day, do you?”

The girl rolled on her back and glared at the what was supposed to be grey ceiling above her. “Oh, of course I don’t want to be late for my first day,” she muttered sarcastically. “That would terrible, an absolute scandal. What could _possibly_ be worse?”

“Rachel!” called the voice from downstairs again, this time with a bit more force in it.

“I’m up!” yelled the girl back, sitting up with annoyance written all over her face. “Quit bothering me, Janet.” She tried running a hand through her hair only to find out about her bed head. “Great, just great,” she muttered in herself while pushing the covers completely back and getting out of bed. “Just what I need. Stubborn hair. If that isn’t a sign that today is going to be absolutely _perfect_ , than I don’t know what is.”

This girl was Rachel Grey and she was getting ready – or more like trying to – for her very first day at school. Her very first day as the new girl at a small high school where that was considered rare and museum worthy.

She hated it. She hated small towns in particular. Nothing interesting ever happened in small towns, unless one counted the marriage between high school sweethearts as interesting and most residents of small towns thought so, which she found odd because most marriages in small towns where that between high school sweethearts.

Unfortunately it seemed that Charles and Janet wanted to live nowhere but in small towns and as long as she went to high school and lived under their roof, she was bound to living in them.

She probably wouldn’t have minded living in them if she would actually live long enough in one to become a part of the society. But that was the other problem. Not only had the two people that called themselves her parents a small town fetish but they also had this rule to never stay anywhere longer than five years. Apparently they thought it was good for a person to change sceneries every few years and because of that incredibly odd rule, Rachel was forced every time to leave a town just when she started to settle in and start the whole process again from the start, only then in a new town.

Which was what Forks was, just the next stop. She faintly remembered Charles and Janet promising her when they had moved to France that they wouldn’t move again until after she had graduated but apparently she had only dreamed it because normally they stayed true to their word.

After a long fight with her hair and grabbing the first clothing articles she came across, Rachel was fully dressed and ready and made her way downstairs, carefully watching where she placed her feet and avoiding the loose boards and many paint cans.

The house they had bought and had moved into three days ago, was liveable but it still had a long way to go before it was home, especially her bedroom was in the desperate need of some attention.

All of her stuff had been moved and was now in Forks but she still hadn’t unpacked a single thing. A part of her didn’t want to since she was still in denial that she was really going to live in Forks, the other and more sane part reminded her that unpacking while one still wanted to paint the walls and put a new floor in the room, was just plain stupid.

The rest of the house wasn’t doing much better, except the kitchen and bathroom. Everywhere were standing boxes and paint cans and new floor boards, and if she knew Charles and Janet well, and she did, then the mess wouldn’t be gone for at least two more months.

Rachel walked into the kitchen and the first thing that caught her attention was the window opposite of the door. She had the feeling that she would quickly get used to what it showed: a dull green and grey forest.

Everything in the town was dull and was either coloured green or grey. Even the houses lacked colour. Nothing stood out and had just blended with the weather, another thing she would probably get used to soon even though she didn’t want to.

The woman who had sold them the house, had warned her to not expect too much sunshine since, and this was a quote, “the only weather Forks knows is wet weather”.

Now Rachel wasn’t a girl who hated the rain and the cold, far from it, and when she had first heard that the sun showed itself very little in the small town, she had been happy because the sun would remind her of things she much rather wanted to forget. But when she heard that in a bad year there was no sunshine at all, she had realised that Forks and its weather would most likely drive her to a depression, if not to an early death.

“Good morning, darling,” greeted Janet Grey, causing the sixteen year old to turn her gaze away from the window and towards the bouncing blond woman at the small table in the middle of the kitchen. “Did you sleep well?”

Rachel gave her a cold look and no answer. Instead she sat down, poured herself a cup of coffee and grabbed some toast.

Janet was most of the times a woman who could make one’s teeth hurt simply because she was that sweet. She was caring and kind and above all, happy. She was always happy, which was really irritating at times, and her happiness was contagious. How happier she was, how more people around her were happy. It was her gift.

Charles Grey, who was hidden behind his newspaper at that very moment, was a born leader and police officer. Almost every man in the Grey family, and even a handful of the women, were law enforcement officers and they lived and breathed to protect others. So did the thirty-seven year old and he had the advantage on his fellow officers and his family members that he had amazing reflexes, which was his gift.

Rachel wasn’t on very good terms with them at the moment. Not because they had forced her to move while she was in the middle of her junior year or because they hadn’t even mentioned they were planning on moving until everything had been arranged and there was no getting out of it anymore. No, the reason why she wasn’t on good terms with them, the real reason, was because they had unintentionally forced her to break-up with her boyfriend.

France had been amazing. She had been popular, her friends had been great and when her boyfriend had walked into her life, things had been just perfect. But then her “parents” had decided it was time to move away and had forced her to leave everything behind. The friends and popularity she could have missed but not _him_.

The break-up had been extremely tough on her, it still was. It wasn’t like the usual break-up where one of the two in the relationship decided it just wasn’t working anymore. Neither of them had wanted it but they hadn’t had a choice. Not really.

She had broken her own heart by breaking up with him and Charles and Janet had forced her to do it. And that was the reason why she wasn’t on good terms with them.

Charles put his paper down and watched her eat for a moment. Rachel ignored him and just kept eating. Janet was blabbing an end away about all the nice people she had met while doing some grocery shopping, unaware that her husband and her daughter weren’t listening.

Generally the sixteen year old had a better relationship with the man than with the woman and in the case of not being on good terms, it was the same. She wasn’t happy with either of them but Charles she could stand, Janet barely. But that also had something to do with the fact that she was always so damn happy.

“Are you excited?” asked the blond woman suddenly out of the blue, causing Rachel to look up from her breakfast. “You certainly look excited. And you’re dressed to impress.”

The brown haired girl gave her another cold look. “I’m dressed in the first things I could find and that matched.”

“You certainly don’t have anything to worry about,” continued Janet as if she hadn’t heard her, a smile on her face so cheerful that it should be forbidden. “The boys will be all over you and the girls will realise the moment they lay eyes on you that it’s better to befriend you than to ignore you. I give it a week, tops, and then you will be back at the top.”

Rachel leaned back, eyeing her with a slight hint of disgust. That her “mother” was always so happy, freaked her out more often than it did not and she was very happy that she was one of the few people she couldn’t infect with her happiness.

“Has the thought crossed your mind that perhaps I don’t want the boys to be over me? Or that I don’t want a bunch of boring and fake girls to try and befriend me? Have you even considered that perhaps, just perhaps, I don’t want to be at the top again?”

Janet smiled sweetly, not being bothered or intimidated by her harsh words and cold tone. “You always want to be at the top.”

“Not this time,” answered Rachel, the bitterness in her eyes coming more to the surface. “I have to survive here for a year and a half. Just a year and a half. After that, I’m done and I will move as far away from here as I can. I don’t want anything that ties me to this town and let’s be honest, that’s what popularity and friends and boyfriends do.”

“You always say that,” smiled Janet. “But things always end differently. You will see. Once you have adjusted, everything will fall into place and you will make tons of friends. And these friends will stick with you for the rest of your life.”

“ _Right_.” Rachel gave a dramatic eye roll, just because the blond woman was thinking again that reality was like one of her favourite rom-coms where everything ended with a “happily ever after”. “Let’s see how the teenagers here are and more importantly, how they _think_ before we start talking about me becoming friends with them for the rest of my life.”

Janet shook her head with a sad smile. “Why are you being so bitter? The people here are so incredibly...”

“It’s a small town, Janet,” interrupted Rachel with a tired sigh, not wanting to hear any more of it. “What kind of people live in small towns? The narrow-minded ones. They are just one step away from being peasants. That they say all these nice and kind things doesn’t mean that they think them too. And do I have to remind you that _I_ am the one who has to hear what they are thinking?” She gave Janet another glare. “With that in mind, forgive me for not looking forward to meeting those _nice_ people.”

Janet opened her mouth to disagree but Charles put a hand on hers. “Just leave her be, Janet. She is always like this on her first day.”

Although that was not entirely true and she was much grumpier than she usually was, Rachel appreciated the gesture and muttered: “Thanks, Charles.”

Unfortunately Janet was being Janet and she was determined to prove her point and bring a smile on her “daughter’s” face. “None of the people I’ve met are as narrow-minded as you claim they are. From what I’ve seen, they are very nice and very open. Very accepting and welcoming.”

“Small town, Janet,” reminded Rachel her again, going once more for the dramatic eye roll. “They are nice and open because they hope they can find some dirt on you. Face it, that’s the only thing that matters in a small town: the gossip.”

“But...”

“And I’m talking about teenagers, not adults. Stubborn teenagers who only care about who they date, who is where on the social ladder, who they wear, who their friends are and who they lose their virginity to.” Charles choked on his coffee when she said that and started coughing uncontrollably. Rachel ignored him and continued. “That are not the kind of people you find working in bookstores or malls or at the restaurant at the side of the road. And if you do, they might not act like that but they sure as hell will think like it.”

“You were once like that too,” pointed Janet out, putting her arms over each other and giving her a triumphant smile.

That smile disappeared all too quickly when the temperature dropped to almost five degrees below and when Rachel looked at her with a cold look that could turn people to ice.

She said not a word to the blond woman but simply got up and grabbed her bag. “I’m leaving. After all, I don’t want to be _late_.”

The word was as sharp as the blade of a razor and Janet flinched. Hell, even Charles flinched and the words weren’t even directed towards him.

Rachel marched out of the kitchen, grabbing her coat on the way to the door, and opened the front door, only to slam it close behind her.

Charles turned his gaze towards his wife and gave her a sad look. “Too soon, love. Way too soon.”

“I hate seeing her like this. She isn’t herself.” Janet let out a deep sigh and leaned back in her chair, staring at the chair where Rachel had sat on moments before. “I just want her to move on, to forget about him and pick up her life again. There are so many other nice and handsome young men out there. The one for her must be walking among them.”

Charles shook his head. “She can’t move on from him yet. Moving on would mean forgetting about it and they only broke up two weeks ago.”

“Two weeks is quite a long time,” disagreed Janet. “Long enough to get over someone. She should have been her old self again by now. I had expected her to be herself again when school would start for her.”

Charles put an arm around her shoulders and gave her a small smile. “Just look on the bright side. She isn’t crying hysterically or walking around like a zombie anymore. And she got up this morning. She got up and dressed and moved instead of just remaining in her bed and staring at nothing but the wall.” Janet gave him a sad look and he rubbed her shoulder in a way to comfort her. “It’s a start, love. Hold on to that.”

 

* * *

 

Meanwhile, Rachel was trying to kill the steering wheel of her Mini Cooper while driving to school. The bag she used for school, a black leather shoulder one, was lying beside her on the passenger’s seat in an angle that told the story of how she had thrown it there.

The eyes of the sixteen year old were focuses on the wet road in front of her. Focussed but not really seeing. She was too angry to be really focussing on anything.

Of all things Janet could have said, it just had to involve her previous life. Her life back in France. Her happy life with her boyfriend – well, ex-boyfriend.

Her grip on the wheel tightened some more and should super strength have been among the many “gifts” she possessed, she would have broken it by now.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, a little voice whispered that Janet had only tried to make her smile and it hadn’t been her intention to upset her or tear open the wounds that had only just started healing. But the angry and prejudiced part of her mind wasn’t listening and called the blond nurse names that would have made her ex proud.

Rachel abruptly pulled on the wheel  and parked her car at the side of it.

For a moment she stared ahead, her hands still holding the wheel that tightly that her knuckles were turning white, but then slowly her grip loosened and her eyes fell close.

And that was when she broke down. The tears started to stream down her cheeks and it didn’t take long before the sobs made her feel breathless. She wrapped her arms around herself and rested her head on the wheel while she allowed herself this moment of weakness.

Her ex. Only thinking about him caused her to break down and feel like someone was trying to rip out her heart. Or the million pieces that used to be her heart.

Rachel was used to pain and getting hurt but the pain the break-up had caused her, the pain it was causing her, she had not experienced anything like it before. She had sworn to stop showing people how hurt she was when she had noticed how almost everyone in town had shot her these pitiful looks, as if she was weak. And she was anything but weak.

So far it worked. She hid how she truly felt behind a mask of indifference and coldness, something she had learned from her ex. It was funny how she now used it since she had hated how he used it when they had been together.

But it worked and that was the only thing that mattered. Only Charles and Janet weren’t fooled by it. They knew her better than that.

Rachel took a deep breath in and opened her eyes again, loosening her arms around herself. To the outside world nothing was wrong with her. The truth was she was far from okay and whenever she was alone, she would allow herself to break down and get the pain out. If only it would stay away after she had let it out.

She took a few more breaths in before starting the car again and driving on, her eyes once more focussed on the road. She saw it a bit clearer this time but her sight was still a tad blurry due to the tears.

Twenty minutes later she arrived at her new school, Forks High School: Home of the Spartans. Or so the sign outside it tried to make her believe.

It was like any other building in the town: dull. It stood slightly out simply because it was that big but further it blended with the weather and the trees surrounding it, like the rest of the town.

Should she have continued driving after leaving the house, she would have been that early that it would have even put the worst goody two shoes at shame. But since she hadn’t, her car wasn’t the first one parked on the matching, dull looking parking lot in front of the school.

The students owning said cars were hanging around them and turned their attention to hers when she parked it as far away from school as possible. Apparently a Mini Cooper was just as museum worthy as a new student was.

Rachel took one deep breath in and looked at her reflection in her rear mirror. There were some tears left on her cheeks, her mascara was smeared and the mess was joined by several red dots. Anyone, even the narrow-minded people of Forks, would notice it and realise she had been crying. And that was the last thing she wanted.

She grabbed her bag and took out the magical stuff that was called make-up. Not five minutes later all signs had been disposed of and satisfied with the result, she put the make-up away and got out of the car, pulling her bag over her shoulder as she moved.

She threw the door close behind her and locked it before turning to the students who were gawking at her as if she wasn’t wearing any clothes.

“ _Be strong, Rachel_ ,” she told herself silently. “ _Chin up and don’t let them see. Don’t be intimidated. Just ignore them._ ”

The sixteen year old took another deep breath before throwing her hair back and walking to the school’s front doors with her chin up and a confident look on her face.

“Nice ride,” complimented a boy with a cocky grin on his face when she passed him.

Rachel stopped and eyed the car he was leaning against: an audi 90. Before she realised it, a bitchy smile pulled itself on her face. “Thanks,” she answered in a sweet tone. “I wish I could give you the same compliment.”

The cocky grin dropped in an instant and she gave him a last sweet but bitchy smile before walking on. The confidence in her steps grew when she heard his friends laugh.

That same confidence didn’t falter until she had reached the secretary’s office. By that time, she had left behind a stream of gossip. She didn’t care.

She had also discovered that the inside of the school was as dull as the outside was and when she entered the secretary’s office, she was anything but surprised when she was met by grey walls and equipment that had no colour whatsoever.

The only colourful thing in the room was the secretary self. She was a small woman with red hair, big glasses and an even bigger cleavage that she had tried to tug away in a too tight purple blouse. Tried and failed.

She looked up when Rachel stopped in front of her desk and a sweet smile that could rival Janet’s smiles, appeared on her face. “Can I help you?”

“I’m Rachel Grey.”

More the sixteen year old did not need to say. The whole town had been talking about the new chief of police and his family and she would have been more surprised if the woman in front of her hadn’t known who she was. 

“Of course, you’re the new student.” The smile turned from annoyingly sweet to Barbie doll sweet and the redhead turned to a large pile of papers. “Your schedule should be somewhere in here.”

Rachel rolled her eyes and shrugged off her coat, folding it over her arms and holding it in front of her while she watched the woman look. One would expect that when a school such as Forks High would get something as rare as a new student, all the necessary papers would be lying ready and waiting for said student.

Apparently not.

“Here it is!” The woman pulled out a piece of paper with a smile of triumph, causing the entire pile to fall to the floor. “Oh, crap.” She turned to the sixteen year old, who couldn’t help but crook her eyebrow. Apparently that made her nervous because the redhead chuckled and started fiddling with one of her many blouse buttons. “Well, here it is. And uh...” She went through a few more drawers and eventually pulled out another paper. “Here’s a map of the school. Would you like me to mark the quickest routes to your classes?”

Rachel practically snatched the papers of the desk. “No, thanks. I think I will manage.”

“Oh.” The secretary was caught off guard, clearly not expecting that answer, and it took her a few moments to recover and remember what else she had to give a new student.

Ten minutes later Rachel stepped out of the office again, this time carrying a map of the school, her schedule, the number and combination of her locker and some papers her teachers of that day had to sign.

She sighed and looked up the classroom where she had her first lesson on the map before turning and making her way to her locker.

The dreaded first day had begun and what a _promising_ start it had been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there lovely readers,
> 
> What were your thoughts on this first chapter and on my Original Characters? And what did you think about the storyline so far? Is it too predictable?  
> In the first version of this story, Rachel wasn't anything like she is in this one. She was a quiet girl who really wanted nothing to do with anyone and didn't talk to anyone. She was a lot like Bella, although I didn't think so at the time. It wasn't until a reviewer pointed it out that I discovered it and opened my eyes.  
> Anyway, let me know what you think and I will update another chapter in a week's time. So if you check this story again next Wednesday, you should find yourself lucky.  
> If you have any questions, just ask. I will gladly answer (if I can).  
> Also for images on how I imagine Charles, Janet and Rachel to look, check out these links:  
> Rachel Grey: http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy2/CreationOfDestruction/OC%20Pictures/Rachel%20Grey/RachelGrey.jpg  
> Charles Grey: http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy2/CreationOfDestruction/OC%20Pictures/Rachel%20Grey/Rufus-Sewell-rufus-sewell-739873_752_1204.jpg  
> Janet Grey: http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy2/CreationOfDestruction/OC%20Pictures/Rachel%20Grey/mena_suvari_photoshoot-6178.jpg  
> Rachel's Mini: http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy2/CreationOfDestruction/Rooms%20Houses%20and%20Cars/RachelsMini_zpsa919cc3a.jpg  
> Rachel's Outfit: http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy2/CreationOfDestruction/Story%20Outfits%20-%20Jewellery/NewGirlinTownEnglishOutfitCh1_zps0226eaf3.jpg


	3. A Dreaded Day Becomes Even More Dreadful

**Chapter 2: A Dreaded Day Becomes Even More Dreadful**

“What is wrong with them? They look like the dead models from Hell.”

* * *

She knew it was coming. It always happened so she was counting on it. There was no reason for her to be surprised that something that always happened, happened. She was, however, surprised that it took that long.

What she was talking about? Well, that was obvious: being cornered and questioned by some guy who thought he was a something and hoped that by being “nice” to the new girl, he would end up getting laid.

It always happened so Rachel was prepared. But honestly, she had thought it would happen before she had even reached her locker. Instead it happened a lot later while she was making her way to her first class.

She sensed him coming before he had even reached her and suppressed a shudder. Seventeen year old virgin, his grandparents originally came from Japan, half long black hair that he thought was fashionable but in reality it made him look like a hippie, working for the school’s paper, a proud member of the chess club, and he was still struggling to find out whether or not he was gay.

He tapped her shoulder and she suppressed the urge to gag. Yeah, he was trying to find out whether he liked boys or girls but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t fantasy about things in a very _vivid_ way.

“Hi,” he greeted her with a big smile. “You must be the new girl.”

Rachel crooked an eyebrow. “What gave me away? Was it my sense of fashion, my confidence, the map in front of my face or simply the fact that you never saw me around before?”

The guy let out a laugh that was way over the top and she immediately knew what he had yet to discover: he was gay. “Defiantly the last. Everyone knows everyone around here –”

“Figures,” muttered the sixteen year old to herself.

“– so a new face, especially as one as pretty as yours, stands out.”

“Pretty?” repeated Rachel, crooking another eyebrow and eyeing him as if he had gone crazy. This guy made it way too obvious. It also proved to her and everyone else just how desperate he was. “You think I’m pretty?”

His grin widened, thinking he had said the right thing. “Absolutely.”

Rachel stopped walking and turned to him. “Ouch,” she told him. “I happen to think that I’m way above pretty so that you call me pretty is actually an insult.”

It was funny to see how quickly a guy could turn red and the corner of her mouth tugged up in a satisfied smile.

“No!” he quickly protested. “I mean... You’re stunning… I mean, beautiful! Absolutely beautiful! And stunning!”

With each word he spoke his face became redder and soon enough Rachel couldn’t hide her smile anymore.

“You do realise I’m messing with you, right?” she asked in an innocent voice that wasn’t all that innocent.

The embarrassment turned to shock, into relief and then into more embarrassment. “Of course,” answered the guy quickly. “I was just playing along.”

“Huh-huh,” nodded Rachel but the look in her eyes and the smile on her face told him more than enough: she wasn’t buying it.

The guy wiped his hands on his jeans before holding one out to her. “I’m Eric, the eyes and ears of this place.”

Rachel shook his head, smiling when she noticed it was shaking. “Rachel. But of course you already knew that.”

“I love your attitude,” continued Eric.

Rachel rolled her eyes and started walking on again. “Thanks, I work very hard on it. I practise my lines in front of the mirror every evening before going to bed and sometimes also in the mornings before getting dressed.”

“That’s perfect!” Eric took out a small notebook and a pen. “Can I write that down? This is perfect material for the feature.”

Rachel stepped dead in her tracks again and turned around, slamming her hand against his chest and forcing him to a halt. The quickness of it all and with how unexpected it came, caused the desperate boy to yelp and drop the pen and notebook.

“Whoa! Hold it, pretty boy!” she glared. “What feature?”

“Uh...” Eric opened his mouth before closing it again. He repeated this action a few times before giving her a _proper_ answer, in the form of a question. “Yours?”

“Yeah...” Rachel titled her head a little and narrowed her eyes. “I don’t think so.” 

“We always interview new students.”

Rachel put her arms over each other and gave him a daring look. “And have you ever waited around and asked said new students whether or not they wanted to be interviewed and put on the front page of their new school’s paper?” Eric opened his mouth before closing it again. It wasn’t a real answer but she didn’t need one. Not really. “Didn’t think so. Well, guess what? This new girl doesn’t want her face, her name or her interview in the school’s paper. So you will just have to do the article about something else. Got it?”

“No feature,” nodded Eric, swallowing while doing so. “Got it.”

Rachel pulled a sweet smile on her face. “Good.”

She turned around again and walked on. Part of her had expected him to give up now that she had acted out like such a bitch but apparently he was just even more desperate than she had originally thought.

“So what’s your first class?”

“English,” she answered with another dramatic eye roll. “From Mr. Mason.”

“That’s my first class too,” grinned Eric. “I will walk you.”

Rachel let out a sigh and rolled her eyes at the ceiling. Way too desperate. “Sure. Why not? I don’t want to look like an idiot and walking with you might just make me look less like one than walking around with a map in front of my face.”

The grin widened even more. “Great.”

She shot him a look of disbelief before shaking her head and rolling her eyes at the ceiling again. Apparently he was even that desperate that he didn’t hear an insult when one was thrown at him.

“So tell me about yourself.”

Rachel adjusted her bag on her shoulder, keeping her eyes focussed ahead and her head held high. “There’s not much to tell.”

“You seem to move a lot.”

Her head snapped towards her while her eyebrow shot up again and she couldn’t help but allow the disgust on her face. “Have you been looking into me?”

“I’m the eyes and ears of this school, remember?” smiled Eric, clearly proud of his title and what he had done. “I’m supposed to know things.”

“But looking into someone? Really?” questioned Rachel, still eyeing him with disgust. “That’s wrong, not to mention creepy. Like the stalker kind of creepy. Did no one ever tell you that?” The look on his face said enough. “You really need to find yourself some better friends.”

 

* * *

 

Rachel had never been happier when class started as she had been when she and Eric had reached their English class. By that time she had not only come to the conclusion he was gay and desperate but also incredibly nosy, annoying and dumb. Not a good combination.

He fired one question after another at her, making her feel like she was being interrogated, and adding things he knew about the things she answered, when she did actually answer them. The things he added were hardly facts and often assumptions that small town residents made. Like when he stated she didn’t have much of a tan and he had expected it since it didn’t rain a lot in France. She had been forced to remind him that it was also January in France, which meant winter, and that meant they got just as little sun as the United States got.

And if she had thought his talking and questioning had been bad, his thoughts had proven to be even worse. They were all over the place, making hardly any sense, and gave her the biggest headache ever.

Yeah, she, Rachel Grey, was telepathic. Like Janet had her happiness and Charles had his reflexes as a gift, she had her telepathy. And telekinesis. And healing ability. And... Well, the list went on.

Why she had them? That was something she would just love to know too.

She, Charles and Janet were what some called Mutants. That meant that somewhere in their line of ancestors someone had been something supernatural and had passed that down generation on generation, weakening that supernatural treat. How exactly she didn’t know. It had something to do with DNA and evolution. In the end it meant that nothing but a special chromosome remained behind and only a handful were “blessed” with it being active and giving one its gift.

According to the people who had explained that to her, it also meant that there were more generations between Charles and Janet and their supernatural ancestors than between her and her supernatural ancestor, which was why they had one gift and she had more.

Back to the point. When they had entered the class, Rachel hadn’t know how quickly she had to dump the guy and luckily she had the excuse to do so: she had to introduce herself to her English teacher, her very creepy English teacher.

The man was tall and was going bald and had been sitting behind his desk and grading some papers when she had entered and taken a stand in front of him. It had taken well counted five minutes before he had noticed her and only after she had deliberately coughed to get his attention. After that he had gawked at her for another minute or so and he would probably have gawked longer if she hadn’t asked if he stared at all his students like that. Politely of course.

The rest of the morning didn’t go any better. She had Social Science after English and although she had managed to dodge Eric and find the class on her own and although the teacher hadn’t been gawking at her, it had been just as boring as her first one. Apparently it was very important in Forks that teenagers were schooled in being “save” teenagers. In other words, they were given sexual education at school.

She had been sitting by the window and staring out of it with a bored look in her eyes while her teacher, Ms. Moore, had been telling how important it was to use a condom. She was young, freshly out of school, and although she tried to be serious, her red cheeks and sweaty forehead had revealed how uncomfortable she felt. The immature sniggers and giggles coming from the class in front of her, hadn’t helped either.

After Social Science came the break and Rachel managed to spend fifteen minutes outside with only her cell phone as company. Those had been fifteen very long minutes.

Next came P.E. and like with almost every other High School in the United States, the coach of the school’s football team was also the P.E. teacher. In Forks his name was Clapp, Coach Clapp: a man, despite teaching sports, in desperate need of a diet or some vet removal surgery.

Rachel liked most sports. Back in France she had been a part of the school’s gymnasts and cheerleading team and P.E. had been one of her favourite subjects.

She wasn’t very picky when it came to P.E. but the one thing she didn’t like, the one thing she absolutely loathed, was the one thing they were doing on her very first day: basketball. There was just something about the sport and her that didn’t mix.

Soccer? Not a problem. Baseball? Happily. American Football? Bring it on. Volley-ball? She could do it all day. Basketball? Not a chance in hell.

For two long hours she had to endure hell and she was seriously wondering why people were still trying to talk to her and get to know her after they had witnessed her knocking at least three people out and causing more bruises in two hours than a day paintballing could ever do.

During P.E. a guy, he had reminded her of a blond Chihuahua, had come up to her and had introduced himself as Mike Newton and had asked her if she would like to sit with him and his friends during the lunch break. She had accepted simply because saying no would have meant being forced to talk even longer to him.

It was for exactly that reason and that reason alone she allowed herself to be escorted by the Chihuahua in human shape after P.E. was over to the cafeteria and a table in the middle of it. And much to her dismay, gay Eric was also sitting at it.

“Hey guys,” greeted Mike his friends while pulling out a chair for Rachel to sit on. “Have you met Rachel yet?”

Eric completely abounded the conversation he had had with another girl and turned to look at Mike with that overenthusiastic smile. “Hey Mikey. I see you met my home-girl.”

“Your home-girl?” questioned Mike as Rachel’s eyebrow shot up.

Eric moved his chair closer to hers. “Yeah.”

The sixteen year old put her legs over each other and placing her hands over each other on her knees, giving Eric a sweet but dangerous smile. “I’m sorry to burst your bubble but I only met you this morning and honestly, you didn’t leave much of an impression so I would quit calling me your home-girl while you still can.” She tilted her head slightly, the smile sweetening. “What did you say your name was again?” The others at the table sniggered and Eric turned red again. After giving him another innocent smile, she turned to the new faces. “Anyway, I’m Rachel but I’m guessing you guys already knew that.”

She got nods and smiles of confirmation, which were followed by the introductions. There was a guy named Tyler Crowley, tanned and athletic and clearly a part of the Football team, and beside him was sitting a girl named Lauren Mallory, the typical popular, blond and cheerleading girl. Beside Lauren was sitting another girl, Jessica Stanley, who was also in her P.E. class. Although it was obvious the two girls were friends, Jessica didn’t have the bitch vibe as much as Lauren had, nor did she look like the cheerleading and immensely popular girl. The girl who Eric had been talking to turned out to be named Katie Marshall, a shy girl with short red hair and a pale skin, and she was on the school’s paper, just as he was. She had this adoration in her eyes whenever she looked at him that was hard to miss and he was obviously blind to it. The two final members of their incomplete group, or so she had been told, were Lee Stephens, another member of the Football team, and Connor Knight, a friend of Mike’s with an obvious crush on Lauren.

“So you’re from France, huh?” asked Lauren, leaning back in her chair with a sweet smile on her face.

Rachel wasn’t fooled by her smile but didn’t want to give her any attention either so instead of looking at her, she looked at the apple she was twirling around. “Yep.”

“I thought French girls were supposed to be really skinny.”

Rachel’s eyes snapped up and got a dangerous look when she saw that Lauren had the same kind of smile on her face that she herself had used on Eric. She could recognize any insolent hidden away in an innocent observation when one was thrown at her and this girl, Miss I-think-I-can-get-away-with-anything-because-I’m-popular, was throwing one at her.

Well, she was about to get slapped in the face.

The sixteen year old titled her head slightly and allowed her bitch look to appear on her face. “They are,” she answered. “Which is why I do fit in there and you don’t. Or ever will.” As expected, Lauren pulled a face and the smile disappeared in an instant. Rachel leaned forward, this with that sweet smile on her face. “If you’re going to pull a bitch move, make sure that the one you are insulting isn’t a bigger bitch and doesn’t have a comeback. Else you will only embarrass yourself.”

Lauren clenched her teeth onto each other and the steam nearly came out of her ears. Without a word she got up, grabbed her bag and marched off.

But Rachel wasn’t done yet. “Oh, and Lauren?”

The blond girl stopped and glared at her. “What?”

Rachel gave her another sweet smile. “You should get over your jealousy or else your popularity might suffer from it. After all, no one likes a girl who gets even jealous of the new girl, simply because she gets the most attention for one day.”

Lauren’s face became even more furious and she stormed off. The remaining people at the table, who had been holding their breaths, gasped for air before laughing.

“I can’t believe it,” gasped Jessica. “No one talks back against Lauren.”

“You’re kidding,” snorted Rachel. “No one?” Jessica shook her head. “Please, the girl is hardly worthy to be called a bitch. She is like a kitten with claws. I’ve dealt with bitches who were like snakes.”

“What’s the difference?” wanted Mike to know.

“A kitten with claws thinks she is really something while she isn’t and anyone can kick her off her high thrown,” explained Rachel. “Snakes act as if they are your friends but at the same time, they are trying to poison you or stab you in the back.”

Lee laughed. “You’ve got balls.”

Rachel gave him a big smile. “Thanks.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to do an interview?” asked Katie. “It would be the most exciting article since the Cullens.”

“Wait.” A new girl, slightly tanned with long black hair, big glasses and a camera around her neck, had been about ready to sit down at the table but froze midway. “The interview is not going to happen?”

“I don’t really like talking about myself,” explained Rachel. “Nor do I think I will need to be placed on the front page to draw attention to myself.” She smiled and held out her hand. “I’m Rachel.”

The girl blushed and looked down to the table while shaking her head. “Angela Weber.”

“No need to be shy, Angela. I don’t bite,” chuckled Rachel, causing her to only blush more. “But back to where we were talking about…” She turned to Katie. “Who the hell are the Cullens?”

That seemed to surprise the people sitting at the table. “You haven’t noticed them yet?” asked Jessica, her eyes widened in shock.

Rachel crooked an eyebrow. “Should I have?”

“Yeah,” was everyone’s reaction.

She rolled her eyes upon hearing their “duh” tone. “Enlighten me.”

“You can see for yourself,” told Jessica her and she looked over her shoulder to the side of the cafeteria. 

Rachel followed her gaze and immediately the hair at the back of her neck stood up. At the table she was looking at were sitting five people: two girls, three boys. Only she couldn’t really call them girls and boys. Women and men were better terms.

They were all immensely beautiful and deadly pale, they all had dark shadows under their eyes like they weren’t sleeping and they all had topaz coloured eyes.

“They are Doctor and Misses Cullen’s foster kids,” explained Jessica from opposite of her. “They moved down here from Alaska a few years ago but that’s about all we know of them. They keep to themselves and talk to no one. Oh, and they are all together. Like together together. I’m not even sure it’s legal.”

“Jess,” cut Angela in. “They’re not actually related.”

“You could have fooled me,” joined Rachel in, tearing her gaze away from the Cullens. “Speaking of which, what is wrong with them? They look like the dead models from Hell.”

“Totally,” agreed Mike, the others laughing. “They’re weird.”

“Creepy is the word that comes to mind,” disagreed Rachel. And dangerous, she added to herself.

There was something strange about the Cullens, that was a fact, and also something dangerous. If there hadn’t been, the hair at the back of her neck wouldn’t still be standing up nor would her gut be telling her to be scared, very scared, and to get up and run, just to get as far away from them as possible.

“I think they are intimidating,” joined Connor in. “I once ran into Emmett and damn, did that scare me! I was about to piss myself.”

Rachel looked towards the Cullens again. “Emmett is the big guy?”

“Yeah,” answered Jessica. “He’s with Rosalie, the blond girl. The small girl is Alice and she is with Jasper, the guy who looks like he is in constant pain.”

Rachel’s eyebrows knitted together. She tried reading their minds, one by one, and that was when the weird got weirder. They were careful with their thoughts, almost as if they knew someone could be listening in.

Rosalie was mostly thinking about herself and was examining her reflection in a spoon, which was rather boring.

Her boyfriend was more fun and seething on the inside, his thoughts put even Eric’s to shame. They were even more over the place and he was planning all sorts of things, mostly pranks. He also had this need to demand a rematch in wrestling from Jasper.

Then there was Alice, who was thinking in a different language. It sounded like some Asian language, Chinese or Japanese.

Things got confusing and weirder when she read Jasper’s thought. Well, she tried reading his thoughts but she almost instantly pulled out of them again because the moment she entered them, waves of different emotions hit her and made her feel nauseous.

When she tried to read the last Cullen, whose name she didn’t know yet, her eyebrows knitted together even more and her heart started to ache. Why? Because she couldn’t read him, just like she hadn’t been able to read her ex.

There was a small difference, tough. Whenever she had tried to read the thoughts of her ex, it had been like she had walked straight into a concrete wall. With this Cullen guy, all she heard was a strange buzz, like she couldn’t tune in on him. It was the exact same sound she would hear when she was looking for a radio station and she was between two stations.

Rachel shook her head, rubbed her forehead before looking at the people around her again. They were talking about how weird the Cullens were. “So who is the guy who seems convinced that not doing anything with your hair after getting out of bed, is fashionable?”

The conversation immediately fell silence and they all looked towards the last Cullen before looking back at her. “That’s Edward,” told Katie her. “The only one who is single. But apparently he thinks he is too good for the girls here.”

“Or the boys,” added Rachel, causing them to look at her strangely. “What?” She let out a laugh. “It could be possible. It certainly would explain why he is still single when he thinks he is all gorgeous and stuff.” She leaned back when she got more odd looks. “Every single hot guy I’ve met knows he is good looking and is out there in the field, trying to woo as much girls as possible. Why isn’t he? Simple: he refuses to come out of the closet.”

Jessica’s face lit up. “That actually makes so much sense.”

“What about you, Rachel?” wanted Mike to know. “Are you single?”

“Yep,” answered the sixteen year old, bringing her apple to her mouth again. “But don’t waste your time. I’m a fatalist.”

Mike frowned. “And that is?”

Rachel gave him a “you’ve got to be kidding” look before shaking her head. “You really need to read more books,” she told him with a dry look. “It means that I believe that every relationship is just doomed to end.”

Katie leaned forward, her eyes filled with compassion. “Sounds like you got your heart broken.”

Rachel shrugged and kept her mask up but on the inside she was crying. “It’s been ages. I’m over him.” And as if on cue, her mobile started ringing. She took it out of her bag and rolled her eyes. “It’s Janet. She has been calling me none stop for already the entire morning.” She slowly got up. “I better take this or else she will never give me a moment’s rest.”

“Sure.”

She made her way towards the doors of the cafeteria, shooting a glare at Emmett Cullen when she picked up his thoughts. That guy was bound to get on her nerves soon.

Said guy let out a yelp in what sounded pain when his eyes met hers and jumped up, staring rather shocked at her. She just shot him a cold look before turning her gaze away and answering her still ringing phone while stepping out of the cafeteria and into the fresh air.

“Janet, twenty-seven calls on my first day is a new record, not to mention seriously overdoing it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there again lovely readers,
> 
> my apologies for being a day late with the update. School is killing me and work is trying to help. Yesterday was a long and tiring day and it just slipped my mind.  
> So what happened in this chapter? A bit more was revealed about what Rachel and her parents can do and also a why is given, although this why might not be true. Also the persons who told her about her nature will play a big role later on in this story, as well as in the sequels. Anyone who can guess who they are gets a special thank you.  
> Rachel also saw the Cullens for the first time and wasn't as mesmerized by them as Bella was. Originally I named this chapter "Just When The Day Couldn't Get Worse" and at first I wanted to stick with it until I realised it didn't fit the rewritten chapter to "A Dreaded Day Becomes Even More Dreadful". To explain this title name, Rachel met several people she rather didn't want to meet, she had to do a few things she didn't like and she got a feeling that predicted nothing good. This is why she thinks the day has become even more dreadful, even though everyone is nice to her.  
> Let me know what you guys thought of that. And of course what you thought of the story in general. I haven't heard from anyone yet, which is a real shame :( , but I have noticed the hits, which make me happy again.  
> Next update will take place somewhere next week. Keep an eye out.


	4. The Strangest Teenagers Ever

**Chapter 3: The Strangest Teenagers Ever**

“The hair on the back of her neck immediately stood up and the iron grip of fear closed itself around her throat, for another emotion had joined the anger and hostility in his eyes: hunger.” 

* * *

“You have _how many_ classes?”

Rachel shrugged and ignored Jessica’s stare and open hanging mouth. “Eight, if you don’t count the mandatory subjects like English, Social Science and P.E.”

“Why so many?” wanted Jessica to know. “You don’t actually like school, do you?”

“Only nerds like school,” threw Rachel back at her. “And do I look like a nerd?”

“No,” gave Jessica in. “But you could secretly be a nerd and hide all your nerdiness behind your style for fashion.”

“Yeah… No.” Rachel threw her hair back over her shoulder and wrapped her arms tighter around the books she was holding. “I just don’t know what I want to do after High School and I like to keep my options open.”

Jessica eyed her oddly. “Then exactly why are you following Latin?”

“There is just something about that language that attracts me.” Rachel shrugged. “Besides, knowing Latin will benefit me should I decide to become a doctor.”

“And Italian?”

“Interpreter. I already know French and English and even a bit of Spanish so technically I could start without even following the study.”

Jessica put her arms over each other. “And how will Visual Arts benefit you?”

Rachel opened her mouth before closing it and smiling. “You’ve got me. That’s just for the fun of it.”

Jessica shook her head in disbelief. “I cannot believe you have time to follow all those classes. Or to make all that homework.”

“I’m a busy bee,” shrugged Rachel. “This is nothing compared to what I used to do back in France.” She titled her head in a thoughtful way. “Maybe I will end up doing all of that also here. Planning parties, attending school council’s, being part of a sport’s team...”

Jessica let out a laugh. “You’re a workaholic.”

Rachel gave her a cheeky smile. “I like to think of myself as very involved in the society.”

The two of them were walking towards their last classes of the day: Rachel had Biology, Jessica Spanish. Their previous period, Mathematica, they had had together and they had decided to walk together to their next classes, which were beside each other, and save Rachel from looking like an idiot.

She had been on the phone with Janet till the bell had rung. Apparently the blond woman had wanted to apologize, which she hadn’t wanted to hear, and had been curious about how her first day was going. The other reason behind the call had been to let her know that both she and Charles would be late and she would have to eat on her own.

After she had hung up and entered the cafeteria again, the people she had shared lunch with had been curious about her next class and after finding out that she and Jessica shared the class, they had decided to walk together. It was so much easier and cosier.

Deciding to ask Jessica about something she had noticed during lunch instead of talking about herself, Rachel gave her another cheeky smile. “So tell me about Mike.”

Jessica’s cheeks flushed red and she stuttered: “What?”

“Oh, come on, Jessica,” grinned Rachel. “It is so obvious. You like him.”

Her cheeks flushed even more and she looked at the ground. “Apparently not or else he would have noticed.”

“He’s a guy,” reminded Rachel her, giving her a look that that should be an answer enough. “Guys, especially teenaged guys, are blind to any signals girls or women send.”

Jessica eyed her up and down before putting her chin a bit up. “He seems to like you.”

“Only because I’m the hot new girl. And I’m sure Mike isn’t as desperate as Eric is and that he will continue persuading me even after I’ve given it in his face that I’m not interested. So there’s no need to get jealous.” Rachel poked the girl beside her slightly with her elbow. “Besides, we don’t live in the Dark Ages anymore. You don’t have to sit around and wait for him to pick up the signs and come to you. Ask him out instead. Take charge.”

“It’s not that easy,” disagreed Jessica.

Rachel wasn’t buying it and gave her a look. “Do explain.”

“We dated before,” explained the slightly older girl hesitantly. “In our sophomore year.”

Rachel crooked an eyebrow. “I guess it didn’t end well.”

“Not really, no.” Jessica adjusted her bag with an uncomfortable look on her face. “It wasn’t like we were together or anything. We were just dating and…” She adjusted her bag once more, a nervous sign. “And I caught him making out with another girl.”

“Ah,” was Rachel’s immediate response, everything becoming much clearer. “I see now why you are so hesitant.” The girl beside her let out a sigh of relief. “Still, you are both one year older, which means one year more mature. You should give it another chance, especially since you still like him so much. You know what they say: nothing ventured, nothing gained.” They reached her class and stopped walking. “Just think about it,” told the sixteen year old her. “If you do nothing, you will always wander “what if” and giving it a try won’t kill you.”

Jessica nodded in herself before smiling. “See you after class?”

“Sure,” shrugged Rachel. “Have fun in Spanish.”

“Thanks. You too.”

Jessica walked on and Rachel entered the classroom. The first thing she noticed was her Biology teacher, a Mr. Banner according to her timetable. He was running through the classroom, getting all the things he needed for the lesson and looking like he was about to have a mental breakdown. He was the typical professor type with messy brown hair, brown eyes widened in excitement that were lined by dark circles due to many sleepless nights and he was dressed in a worn out brownish suite.

Shortly after observing him, she noticed another thing: one of the Cullens was in her class. It was the one with the careless hair and he was sitting all on his own at the table closest to the desk.

Like every other student, he was staring at her but there was something different about the way he looked at her. Yes, he looked curious just like the other students looked but there was also frustration in his eyes, joined by a frown on his face.

Rachel rolled her eyes and took a stand by the desk, waiting patiently for Mr. Banner to show up. He did so after a few minutes and nearly tripped over his own feet while trying to get to her.

Puffing loudly and his cheeks flushed from all the running, he straightened himself up. “You must be the new student. Miss Grey, isn’t it?”

“Yes, sir,” answered Rachel while handing him open of the papers her teachers had to sign and she had to hand the secretary at the end of the day. She thought it was the weirdness thing ever.

“And you’re from France?”

“Correct again.”

Mr. Banner quickly signed the paper and handed it back to her before moving to the bookstand at the side. “I’ve been told the Biology given at French High Schools is more advanced than it is here in the United States.” He came stumbling back and handed her the books she needed. “Let me know when things are too easy for you.”

“I will,” promised Rachel, giving him a small smile. Something told her that even though this was clearly a scatterbrain, they would get along just fine. “But I’m sure you’re more than qualified to keep things interesting.”

“Right...” stuttered Mr. Banner, his cheeks colouring again slightly, and he made a gesture towards the table the Cullen boy was sitting at. “Well, you can sit beside Mr. Cullen.”

Rachel gave him another smile. “Thank you.”

She walked towards the empty spot, slightly waving back at Mike when he jumped up and waved as if they hadn’t seen each other in ages. A bit over the top.

When she sat down, she turned her head towards the Cullen boy, Edward was his name if she remembered correctly, and it was just in time to notice the change in his body.

At first it looked like someone had slapped him unexpectedly in the face, causing him to gasp for air. Then the anger and hostility came and along with it came the change in his eyes: they turned from topaz to black, completely black. His body tensed, his breath hitched and his jaws were pressed so tightly on to each other that she swore she could hear them crack. He was still staring at her but looked about ready to murder her.

Having done nothing to cause such a reaction, Rachel’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “What?” she snapped. She saw him clench his hands under the table while he slowly tore his eyes away from her. Shaking her head, she also looked away and muttered under her breath: “Creep.”

He apparently heard her because his head turned towards her again and not being one to avoid being hostility stared at, she met his gaze again. The hair on the back of her neck immediately stood up again and the iron grip of fear closed itself around her throat, for another emotion had joined the anger and hostility in his eyes: hunger.

The moment she registered it, every fibre in her body started screaming and made her aware of just how dangerous the pale looking boy beside her was. What exactly he was, she did not know but experience had taught her that when her gut told her someone was dangerous, it was better to listen to it because her gut was always right.

Rachel looked away and moved her chair away from him, pushing the feeling she should get up and leave the room down no matter how hard that was. Rephrase that: it was almost impossible because she wanted nothing more but to run and put some distance between her and the creepy guy who looked like he wanted to eat her, to kill her and enjoy every minute of it.

The lesson started, Mr. Banner was talking about the immune system and Rachel forced herself to just write everything down he said, simply because she was that unfocused that everything he said went one ear in and the other ear out.

The hour went by painfully slow and with each passing second, she grew more uncomfortable. Although she forced herself not to look at him again, she could feel his eyes on her the entire time.

When the bell finally rang, indicating the end of the day, the Cullen boy was the first out of the classroom. He left half his stuff on the desk and just shot up and ran. He was out of the room before the other students had even realised the day was over.

Rachel stared at the door he had disappeared through with narrowed eyes and with an annoyed, even angry look in them. So Edward Cullen wasn’t entirely human, that she was sure of, and something about her made him hostile.

“Prejudiced creep,” she muttered under her breath while grabbing her own stuff and making her way to Mr. Banner’s desk to tell him that his lesson had been fascinating and completely new for her.

After a quick chitchat and answering his questions about what subjects she had studied back in France, Rachel also walked out of the classroom and met up with Jessica, who was patiently waiting for her by the door.

They were making their way to the office, talking about her Spanish class, when they bumped into another Cullen. This time it was the bear and the girl beside her was so kind to remind the sixteen year old that his name was Emmett.

She titled her head slightly when he just stayed where he was, staring at her. “You mind? You’re blocking the way.”

The bear snapped out of his thoughts and Rachel’s eyes narrowed when she noticed his eyes. Like Edward’s, they were darkening and switching slowly from topaz to black. “You’re the new girl, right?”

Her eyes narrowed more while Jessica’s mouth dropped open. “I’m surprised you still have to ask. I thought it was pretty obvious since I’m the only new face here.”

“It’s called being polite,” said Emmett, carefully choosing his words. “How are you liking Forks?”

“It’s lovely,” was Rachel’s cold answer, it matched the cold look on her face. “That is if you exclude the idiot who wants to play matchmaker together with his weird sister and couple me to their arrogant and even weirder brother.” Emmett’s eyes widened and his lips parted, clearly in shock. She didn’t need to ask why because she knew: she had used his thoughts again him. Thoughts she shouldn’t be able to know. It was a slip but at that time, she didn’t really care. “Now, do you mind? We’ve somewhere to go.”

He stepped aside and Rachel grabbed Jessica’s elbow and pulled her with her. The slightly older girl was in shock for a few more moments before bursting. “Emmett Cullen just talked to you.”

“Thanks for stating the obvious.” The brown haired girl rolled her eyes. “He was gawking at me like I’m some kind of circus animal. How rude is that?” She wrapped her arms tighter around her books. “There’s something seriously wrong with that family.”

“The fact that they are together while they are adopted siblings didn’t give that away?” questioned Jessica, looking oddly at the new girl.

“Oh, it did,” told Rachel her. “But I only realised how messed up they are when I had to spend an hour long beside one of them. He was glaring daggers at me the entire time and I hardly spoke a word to him. I ask again, how rude is that?”

Jessica nodded wisely. “Incredibly rude.”

“And then the big guy.” Rachel pointed with her thumb over her shoulder to where they had been standing earlier. “Being polite, my ass. If you’re being polite you don’t jump out of nowhere and block someone’s path just to gawk at them.”

“You shouldn’t take it personally,” tried Jessica to calm her down a little. “The Cullens like no one but themselves.”

“I’m starting to realise why,” snorted Rachel while they pushed the doors to the office open. “They’re haughty and prejudiced. Not very good traits.”

She froze when they stepped into the space because none other than Edward Rude Cullen was standing at the desk and he was lost in what seemed a heated conversation with the purple blouse wearing secretary.

“There must be something else open.” He sounded desperate, really desperate. “Anything. Physics? Chemistry? Performing Arts?”

“It’s in the middle of the year.” The secretary was shaking her head, causing her red hair to bounce up and down. “Every class is full, dear, and even if it wasn’t, you would have missed too much. I’m afraid you will have to stay in Biology.”

Rachel’s mouth dropped open and luckily she wasn’t the only one. “My God,” breathed Jessica out.

Edward’s entire body tensed and he slowly looked over his shoulder towards her. His eyes seemed to have blackened only more and they still held the same hostile and hungry look.

His head snapped back to the secretary and his teeth clenched on to each other again. “Fine,” he hissed. “I’ll just have to endure it.”

He stormed out of the office without another word, not giving Rachel and Jessica another look. They watched him go, their mouths still dropped open in shock and disbelief.

The moment the doors fell close, Jessica burst out. “What a dick! I can’t believe I was ever attracted to him!”

“I can’t believe he really tried getting out of Biology just because I’m in it.” Rachel walked to the desk and handed the secretary her notes and after answering her first day had been just fine, the two girls left the office again. “And I wish him good luck in finding another class because I’m practically in all of them.”

“Yeah, that’s going to come back and bite him the arse,” nodded Jessica with a satisfied smile. “It’s something I will look forward too.”

“You know, I kind of understood it when you said they keep to themselves. They just think they are better than the rest of us,” told Rachel her. “And I get that he doesn’t like me. You can’t make everyone like you. There are just people out there that dislike you for no reason whatsoever. But – ” Her eyes flashed in anger. “ – that changed things. Who the hell does he think he is? Disliking someone for no reason is one thing but only hate drives you so far to try and switch classes and I’ve done nothing to make the guy hate me.”

Jessica nodded seriously. “My thoughts exactly.”

Rachel frowned before deciding. “I’m going call him out on it.”

Jessica’s mouth dropped open in shock. “You are?”

“Hmm-hmm,” answered Rachel. “I’m going to tell him he has to suck it up and get over whatever problem he has with me and if he refuses or can’t seem to get over it, I will demand to know what that problem is. He owes me that much.”

Jessica stared at her for a moment, still with her mouth open, before she closed it and a wide grin spread on her face. “Badass,” she complimented. “You don’t let anyone walk over you, do you?”

Rachel smiled confidently. “Nope.”

They reached their lockers and quickly grabbed their stuff before making their way outside. “Well, I’m sticking around to watch how this is ending.”

“Be my guest,” smiled Rachel. “I just hope the ass won’t take too much of my time. I still have to do some shopping and I really want to start working on my room. I’m done with living and sleeping in a dump.”

“Do you have any ideas about what you’re going to do with it?” asked Jessica.

“Not a clue but I will allow myself to be inspired by the home magazines,” smiled Rachel. “I was thinking about lime green, or maybe some other cheerful colour. The rest of the house completely lacks it so some colour will be good for me.”

“If you need any help, just call,” offered Jessica.

Rachel gave her a nod. “Thanks.”

They walked outside and the sixteen year old scanned the parking lot. The Cullens were easy to spot, they were standing around a silver Volvo, but the ass she wanted to talk to was nowhere in sight.

“I don’t see him anywhere,” noted Jessica, who too had been looking around.

“Neither do I,” answered Rachel, keeping her eyes focussed on the four remaining Cullens. “But the polite thing would be to _ask_.”

Jessica giggled. “You wouldn’t.”

“Oh, I would.” A bitchy grin spread on her face while her eyes turned from playful to just plain cold. “I will.”

She took a deep breath in and threw her hair back, chanting the same things she chanted that morning, and started walking towards the Cullens with her head up and with confidence in her steps.

The four dead models from hell, who had been talking in low voices with one another, fell silent when they saw her walking towards them, as did most of the parking lot. She could feel everyone’s gaze on her but she ignored them. It was just her and these four ridiculous pale looking “teenagers”.

She stopped when she was in front of them and focussed on Emmett. “Where’s your brother?”

“Uh...” Emmett exchanged weary looks with the other three. “Not here?”

“I can see that.” Rachel was unmoved and put her hands on her hips. “And I wasn’t asking where he isn’t. So I’m going to ask again, for the sake of being _polite_ : where is your ass of a brother?”

“He already left,” spoke one of the girls, the small one who looked like a pixie. Alice if she remembered correctly. “You just missed him.”

“Too bad,” was Rachel’s response, her voice and eyes stone cold, and she turned to Emmett again. “Can you pass him a message from me?”

Emmett exchanged weary looks again before turning his eyes on her again. “Sure?”

“Good.” The bitchy smile returned for a moment before her whole face became stone hard again. “You tell that arrogant piece of shit to suck it up and get over whatever problem he has with me. He dislikes me? Fine. I can live with that. What I can’t stand is being hated by someone who I haven’t even spoken one word too, so basically being hated for no reason at all. So tell him to either let it go or explain the why to me. He owes me that much.” She smiled again and wanted to leave when she remembered something, causing her to turn around with a smile. “Oh, and also tell him that I follow eleven classes so it will be hard for him to find one which I’m not in.”

Emmett swallowed and answered very carefully: “I’ll tell him.”

Rachel gave him a sweet smile. “Thanks.”

She dramatically turned around, throwing her hair over her shoulder again while doing so, and walked towards her car with more confidence in her steps than before and swinging her hips a bit more than was necessary.

Jessica met her half way, laughing her head off. “That. Was. AWESOME!! You’re totally my new best friend.”

Rachel’s grin widened too. “It felt strangely good. It would have been even better if I could have said all those things in his face but this will have to do for now.” They stopped walking, having reached Jessica’s car. “I will see you tomorrow.”

Jessica hugged her with a big smile, taking Rachel slightly by surprise. “Defiantly.”

Rachel gave her a last smile before walking on to her own car. Much to her surprise, someone was already standing by it. “Charles?”

The man who called himself her father was leaning against her car with his arms over each other and with an amused smile on his face, dressed in his uniform. “You just want to be left alone, huh? Making no friends whatsoever so you can leave this town after graduation without being tied back to it?”

Rachel rolled her eyes. “Oh, shut up.”

But he didn’t. “Janet was right. You can say all you want but in the end you always end up at the top.” She shot him a warning look and he smiled as response, not taking her serious, but he was wise enough to drop it. “I see you’ve made some enemies.”

“I can’t help it that they are asocial and think they are better than everyone else,” defended Rachel herself. “And if they are going to hate me than that’s fine but I sure as hell want to know why. I deserve to know.”

“God good, Rachel.” Charles shook his head. “You’ve spend way too much time with...” He cut himself off when he saw the death glare he got from the sixteen year old. “All I’m saying is that he rubbed off on you.”

She ignored his statement and tried to ignore her aching heart. “What are you doing here, Charles?”

“I was planning on asking you how your first day was but after what I witnessed, I think I already know the answer to that question.”

“I guess it wasn’t that bad,” answered Rachel carefully, opening her car and throwing her bag on to the backseats. “But I do have a major headache and a lot of the boys got on my nerves. And then there was the whole thing with _them_.” She mentioned towards the Cullens before turning back to him and sighing. “I guess all I can say is that I survived.”

“You always get those headaches when you’re in a new crowd,” pointed Charles out. “And boys will be boys.”

“Nah-ah,” disagreed Rachel, throwing the door close with a bit more force than was necessary. “These boys bring being teenager to a whole new level. I’ve spend time with an oversexed person 24/7 for weeks so I’m used to something but the things these teenagers are fantasising about make even me uncomfortable.” She sighed and leaned against the car beside him. “It’s just so tiring.”

Charles put an arm around her shoulders and rubbed her back. “You will be alright.” Rachel gave him the “don’t push it” look and he quickly removed his arm again. “So who are those new enemies of yours.”

“The Cullens.”

The surprise on Charles’ face was hard to miss. “As in Dr. Cullen’s children?”

“Foster children,” corrected Rachel on autopilot before she allowed her curiosity to take over. “Why? Do you know something about them?”

“Not much. Janet works with Dr. Cullen and from what I’ve heard, his kids don’t cause much trouble.” He eyed her suspiciously. “Why do you want to know? You’re not looking for dirt, are you?”

“You know I’m not like that.” Rachel pushed him away from her with an annoyed look. “So I take that as an insult.”

Charles chuckled slightly and took his old position. “Then why do you want to know?”

Rachel looked at the four pale “teenagers”. They were whispering things to each other and looked worried. “There’s just something about them... I can’t put my finger on it but there’s defiantly something. And are you not seeing how pale they are? It’s almost as if they are already dead.” Four heads snapped up and four pair of eyes were suddenly focused at her with troubled look in them. It did nothing to make her less suspicious. “See!” she proclaimed, mentioning towards them with her hand. “How weird is that? It’s almost as if they heard me.”

Charles shook his head. “You’re being paranoid.”

Rachel opened her mouth to disagree but found that she couldn’t and closed her mouth again, her eyebrows knitting together. Maybe she was being paranoid. Maybe she had spent too much time with her ex and he had rubbed off on her. Or maybe the months of spending in the supernatural world made her desperate to see the supernatural and she was imagining things.

She sighed, rubbing her eyes. “Maybe you’re right and I’m being paranoid. I guess after such a long and tiring day I’m seeing and imaging things.” She opened her eyes again to see the clearly relieved looks on the Cullens. She decided to ignore it. “But what about you? Did anything exciting happen so far?”

“Not really. An almost hit and run, an absolutely wasted prisoner and some speeding tickets.”

“Sounds incredibly boring,” pointed Rachel out. “But I guess everything sounds boring after dealing with animal attacks for months. We will just have to get used to the boring stuff again.”

Charles nodded in himself, looking a tad worried. “Yeah...”

Rachel titled her head and eyed him curiously. “But something tells me you didn’t come all this way just to ask me how my day was.”

“You got me,” chuckled the new chief of police. “I feel bad that Janet and I are leaving you all on your own tonight so I thought we could go and do some shopping together. You know, looking at new things for the house.”

“Great minds think like one,” chuckled Rachel. “I was already planning on going shopping.” Charles looked expectantly at her and she rolled her eyes. “Fine. You can tag alone. I will even give you a ride back to the station since you were dropped off here without a car.”

The policeman shook his head in amusement but said nothing about the latter. “You’re the best.”

Rachel gave him a smug smile. “I know.”

“Yeah,” laughed Charles, his eyes sparkling in amusement. “You defiantly spend too much time with him.”

Rachel’s eyes narrowed. “You want the ride or not?” Noticing the change in her mood, he quickly nodded. “Then get in and shut up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there again loyal readers,
> 
> I know a bit late with this update. I promised somewhere next week and I'm at least a day late since it's already the start of a new week.  
> I've got a week long break from school, which I'm very happy with, but I do have to work quite a bit. The spare time I have will be dedicated to this story, another story I'm working on and school.  
> What you should know about this chapter? In the original story Rachel acted almost exactly like Bella, especially during the whole Biology thing. She also just wanted to be left alone and only proved at the end of the story to you lovely readers that she truly was different than Bella.  
> Another difference is that this chapter was originally called "Strangest Boy Ever" but I changed it since Rachel doesn't only think Edward Cullen is strange but his entire family. Also, the thing Rachel is referring to while talking to Emmett is something she picked up from his thoughts during the break in the previous chapter.  
> I will hopefully update somewhere next week, most likely Friday.


	5. Things The Mind Can’t Keep To Itself

**Chapter 4: Things The Mind Can’t Keep To Itself**

“She gazed just as hard back and while she did so, she started to feel dizzy, almost as if someone was trying to sedate her.”

* * *

The next day arrived too soon and before Rachel knew it, she was once more sitting in her car and driving towards school.

The afternoon to herself had passed in the blink of an eye. After an incredibly awkward shopping trip with Charles, she had spent the remaining hours of the day doing her homework, cleaning her room and moving all her stuff out of it and towards the attic.

She hadn’t even seen her “parents” come home as she had already been fast asleep and by the time she had woken up and gone downstairs, Charles had left again. Janet had been about to leave and had left after telling the sixteen year old that she had the house to herself again that afternoon and evening and after asking her if she could stop and do some grocery shopping after school.

They were all reasons why Rachel wasn’t exactly in a good mood when she parked her car in front of school and got out of it.

“Rachel!” called Jessica immediately, waving at her and signing for her to join her. She was standing with the same people from lunch by a black 1993 Chevy Astro. “Come join us!”

Rachel sighed before adjusting her bag and making her way towards them, chanting the same things as the day before in her head. “ _Be strong. Chin up and don’t let them see. Don’t be intimidated. Just ignore their stares. Be confident._ ”

When she reached them, she almost magically pulled a cheerful smile on her face. “Morning, guys! How’s it going?”

“It’s going great,” grinned Mike. “Especially after the stunt you pulled yesterday.”

Rachel gave him a sweet smile and acted as if she was clueless, although she knew damn well what he meant. “You’ve got to me more specific, Mike. I pulled a lot of stunts yesterday.”

“The Cullen stunt,” joined Lee Stephens in, a big grin on his face. “You totally told them off.”

“Oh, that.” Rachel shrugged and adjusted her bag again. “It was nothing.”

“It was,” disagreed Eric. “Nobody has ever spoken a word to the Cullens since they arrived here. At least, not like that.”

“And just like with Lauren, I don’t get that,” told Rachel him. “It’s not like they’re going to lash out and kill you if you tell them to get their heads out of their arses.”

“Are you going to give them more hell today?” wanted Mike to know, his eyes sparkling in excitement. Clearly he was looking forward to another stand-off.

“Jesus, Mike,” breathed Rachel out while rolling her eyes. “You shouldn’t look so excited about me bitching on people. That’s just wrong.” Mike, as well as the other guys, couldn’t hide their disappointment and it was rather amusing to see how their faces lit up when she continued with: “But one of them is certainly not going to be lucky today.”

“You’re still going to confront him?” wanted Jessica to know.

“Hell yeah,” Rachel answered without a moment’s hesitation. “Although I’m pretty sure the Bear passed my message, I still want to tell Edward Bloody Cullen in his face just what I think of him and his strange behaviour.”

“And the other four?” wanted Lee to know, his eyes sparkling just as much as Mike’s had done before.

Rachel shrugged again. “If they stop staring and being rude, then I won’t have a problem with them.”

Mike opened his mouth to say another thing but Jessica cut in. “And you lot haven’t talked about anything else this entire morning. Can’t we change the subject to something a little more interesting?”

Shy Angela, who had kept her mouth and her focus on the ground ever since Rachel joined, slowly looked up at the new girl. “How was your shopping trip? Did you find what you needed for your room?”

Rachel was too happy with the change of subject to really care that Jessica had apparently blabbed about her plans to go shopping. “The necessary things for now,” she answered. “I ordered some curtains and a new floor and I got the paint I wanted, just like all the stuff I need to paint.”

Jessica shuffled closer, her eyes sparkling in curiosity, and it was then only that Rachel suddenly realised just how much of a chatterbox the girl beside her was. “What colour did you pick?”

“Colours,” corrected the sixteen year old her. “If you go for one colour, especially an outspoken one, it becomes too much and immediately labels a room. For example, a completely black room will look smaller than a room where black and another softer colour are used side by side.”

“I didn’t know that,” blinked Jessica. “You’re really into this stuff, aren’t you?”

“I follow Visual Arts,” snorted Rachel. “What do you think?”

Angela’s eyes lit up. “You follow Visual Arts?”

“Yeah,” shrugged Rachel. “I only have one true passion and that’s anything involving a piece of paper and something to draw with. So when I got the chance to follow actual lessons, I took it. I’m just glad that I can still follow it here.”

“That’s amazing!” Angela was beaming now. “Not many people follow it so I’m really happy you will join us.”

Her heart fluttered when the shy girl spoke those words. “You’re following it too?”

“Photography,” explained Angela, holding up the camera around her neck. “It’s one of my passions.”

Rachel wanted to respond on that but her mobile rang and she raised a finger to give her a second while pulling it out of her bag. This time it were her eyes that started sparkling and for the first time since she moved to Forks, a genuine happy smile pulled itself on her face.

“I’ve to take this,” she told the people she was standing with. “Be back in a moment.” While walking away from them, she answered the call. “Jessamine!”

“ _Rachel!_ ” squealed a soft and very friendly voice, laced with a thick French accent, in her ear. This voice belonged to Jessamine Couture, the best friend any girl could ever wish for. She certainly was the best friend Rachel could ever wish for and the moment she heard her voice, her eyes started to tear simply because she realised just how much she missed her. “ _I’m so glad I managed to get a hold of you. This time difference is terrible._ ”

“Tell me about it. I wanted to call you last night but then I realised it was almost morning with you and you were probably sleeping.” Rachel let out a shaky breath when she reached her car and leaned against it while putting her arms over each other as well as she could. “God, you’ve no idea how happy I’m to hear from you.”

“ _Oh, that doesn’t sound good_ ,” picked Jessamine immediately up. “ _Is it that bad?_ ”

“Well, most of them are all very nice and welcoming,” started Rachel hesitantly, following the BMW M3 Convertible and the Jeep Rubicon that made their way on to the parking lot with her eyes. They were just as new and shining as her Mini and suited just as much in the museum as she did, according to the Forks residences. “And I guess I’ve made some friends.”

“ _I hear a but. What’s the problem?_ ”

Rachel sighed, tearing her eyes away from the cars and moving them to the sky. “It feels like a prison, Jessa. I can’t be myself. I’ve to put on a show and act like someone I’m not. I hate it.”

“ _Is that you or them?_ ” wanted Jessamine to know and the sixteen year old sighed while cursing the fact that she knew her so well.

Jessamine was the one person who knew her better than anyone. Well, the almost one person. There was just one above her and he really knew all her secrets.

Anyway, the point was that Jessamine knew her well enough to realise that the people around her weren’t forcing her to put on a show, she forced it upon herself.

“ _I get it, Elle_ ,” whispered the French girl in a soft voice. “ _You don’t want people to know you’re heartbroken and you don’t want to have to live through all those pitiful looks again. You don’t want_ _them_ _to see you have your weak moments too. I really get that. But pretending to be someone you’re not, will drive you into an early grave. It will take everything out of you without you gaining anything from it._ ”

Rachel closed her eyes, once more feeling the tears sting, and whispered: “I know...”

“ _I just want you to be careful, okay?_ ” begged Jessamine. “ _I have seen you struggle with being the new girl, becoming popular and pretending nothing can touch you before and I remember very well what a wreck you were._ ” A shiver went down Rachel’s spine when she remembered what Jessamine was talking about. It certainly hadn’t been pretty. “ _Just don’t let it come to that._ ”

“I won’t,” promised the sixteen year old, opening her eyes again and diverting her gaze from the sky. “How’s life in France?”

Jessamine was talking, telling her about everything that had happened since she had left La Baule but she didn’t hear any of it. Instead her mind had gone blank and she was completely focussed on the four people that were getting out of the two museum worthy cars: the Cullens.

The vain blond girl and the small pixie like girl, Rosalie and Alice if she remembered correctly, were getting out of the BMW whereas the Bear and his blond partner in crime were getting out of the Jeep.

She swallowed when she saw them shoot a look at her, the suspicion and hostility in them not being hidden at all, but didn’t look away. This earned her an eye roll from Rosalie and a narrowed look from Emmett before they looked away and moved on. Alice looked less hostile and more curious and gazed a little longer at her before grabbing her boyfriend’s hand, Jasper now that she thought of it, and tugging him along after their siblings to the school. The boy in question kept his gaze locked on her the entire time. She gazed just as hard back and while she did so, she started to feel dizzy, almost as if someone was trying to sedate her.

“ _Rachel?_ ” Rachel jumped when Jessamine called out to her. “ _Are you still with me?_ ”

“Yeah...” She rubbed her eyes and shook off the feeling. “Sorry, Jessa. I got distracted.”

“ _By what, if I may be so bold to ask?_ ”

Rachel smiled when she heard the tone in her best friend’s voice. “There’s nothing to worry about, Jessa. There’s just this family here in Forks, the Cullens, and they are really weird.”

“ _Sounds interesting._ ” But the worry in Jessamine’s voice did not disappear. “ _And I hear frustration. Tell me all about it._ ”

“Well...” Rachel ran a hand through her hair and allowed her eyes to wander through the parking lot. “They are all just very pale and I’m not talking about albino pale but about deadly pale, like they are walking corpses. Then there’s the fact that they all have topaz coloured eyes and look like supermodels. And the strangest thing is that even though they all look like each other, they are not actually related.”

“ _Oh, there’s more to this than just that_ ,” guessed Jessamine. “ _The Rachel I know doesn’t become suspicious just because a few people look different. What more is there?_ ”

“They are all together as in dating,” continued Rachel. “And they are rude. They stare and they started to hate me the moment they laid eyes on me. I didn’t even say anything to them! And one of them was in my class and he tried to get out of it just because I was in it. And now it seems he suddenly isn’t at school...” Her eyes stopped scanning when they landed on a crow that was sitting on a lantern post. Her heart ached, her eyes started to sting and she quickly closed them again. “I think I’m going crazy.”

“ _I don’t think you are_ ,” disagreed Jessamine with her, the worry had disappeared and the softness had returned. “ _From what you’ve told me, these Cullens are rather mysterious. And we all know how well you handle mysterious._ ”

Rachel couldn’t help but chuckle. “Yeah, once it caught my eye, I won’t let it drop until it killed me or I figured it out.”

“ _Speaking of that..._ ” Jessamine’s tone became more careful and very concerned again and the sixteen year old immediately knew what was coming next. “ _Have you heard from him?_ ”

“No...” Her voice and she suddenly had the strong desire to get in her car, drive and find a quiet spot where she could break down. “Not a single word.”

“ _How are you holding up?_ ” was the next question, laced in even more concern.

Rachel let out a shaky breath and started to blink rapidly to push the tears away. “I’ve been worse. I try to keep myself occupied. It’s a good thing I’ve so many classes and the house is still a mess.”

“ _Please don’t tell me Charles and Janet bought some old yellow or purple Victorian house_ ,” begged Jessamine, changing and dropping the subject so easily that it made Rachel smile. “ _If you do, I swear I will never visit._ ”

“It’s white,” laughed the brown haired girl. “Or that’s what it is supposed to be. The long years of enduring the rain and the cold took its toll and it is more green than white.” She frowned. “Another thing I have to add to my list: painting the outside.”

“ _Do I want to know how long the list already is?_ ”

“Yeah...” Rachel rubbed the back of her neck. “Probably not.”

“ _I thought as much_ ,” sighed her best friend at the same time as the bell rang. “ _And that’s our cue to hang up._ ”

Rachel was immediately hit by a wave of sadness and homesickness. “I could skip,” she suggested, not wanting to hang up again. “My first class is Math and I’m sure I won’t miss out on anything.”

“ _On your second day? I don’t think so. Besides, both your parents and my parents would kill me if they found out that I made you skip class._ ”

Rachel snorted. “Yeah, like I really need to persuaded by someone to skip classes.”

“ _You’re the Golden Girl, Elle_ ,” reminded Jessamine her. “ _Everyone loves you and thinks you’re the perfect daughter. Perfect daughters don’t skip classes._ ”

“But I’m not the perfect daughter.”

“ _You know that and I know that and your parents know that but the rest of the world just wants to stay in that unrealistic illusion._ ”

Rachel sighed, recognizing the tone in Jessamine’s voice. “You aren’t going to allow me to skip, are you? You will just hang up and force me to go to Math since I won’t have anything better to do.”

“ _I sure will_ ,” chuckled Jessamine. “ _But don’t be sad. We will keep in touch and call and mail and text. You have my permission to stalk me._ ”

Rachel snorted again. “Yeah, like that’s something I really want to do.”

“ _Don’t lie. I know it is your big dream to stalk somewhere before you die_ ,” joked Jessamine, causing her best friend to laugh. “ _It will be fine, Elle_ ,” continued the French girl in a softer and more serious tone after the teasing. “ _You’ll be fine. And you will figure out what those Cullens are hiding. I’m sure of it._ ”

Rachel closed her eyes again, feeling the tears sting once more. “I miss you, Jessa.”

“ _I miss you too._ ” Jessamine’s voice sounded just as broken as hers. “ _And you better hang up before we both end up crying our eyes out and cursing the world for being so unfair._ ”

“I will mail you tonight,” promised Rachel, desperately trying to cheer her best friend up a bit. “And tell you all about Forks and my day and the gossip going around.”

“ _That’s a promise you better keep_ ,” laughed Jessamine, making her smile too. “ _You know my sole purpose in life is to listen to the gossip in the world._ ”

Rachel glanced around and noticed she was one of the few students still in the parking lot. “I’ve got to go...”

“ _I know._ ” Jessamine’s voice immediately turned gloomy again. “ _Talk to you soon._ ”

“Defiantly,” breathed Rachel in. “Bye, Jessa.”

“ _Bye._ ”

 

* * *

 

The rest of the day passed in a haze and Rachel honestly couldn’t recall what had been done and said when it was all over. Her mind was too far away.

Her talk to Jessamine, even though she was incredibly happy to hear from her, made her remember again just how miserable she felt and that no matter how much of a show she put on and no matter how nice and friendly everyone was, they didn’t know the real her.

It had been the exact same story in France, with the exception that she had made a real friend long before school had started.

When they had moved to France, a nice family from further down the street had offered to help them unpack and settle in. Their shy but very friendly daughter had been around Rachel’s age and had been kind enough to show her around town. This girl had been Jessamine.

When school had started, she had quickly been surrounded by the popular people and due to her attitude and her confident act, she had fitted right in. Jessamine had been the lone grey mouse, the friend-less wallflower. Everyone had ignored her and the popular kids had advised her not to get associated with her because apparently her “nerdy and goody two shoes behaviour” was contagious.

Rachel hadn’t listened to them and it had been one of the best decisions she had ever made because she never had a friend like Jessamine before. Someone she could be honest with and tell her secrets to without having to worry that the entire school would hear about it.

Back in France it had been her friendship with Jessamine that had helped her to not be crushed by the popularity and it had helped her to stay sane. But she didn’t have Jessamine here in Forks. She was on her own and after their conversation over the phone, she realised just how hard that was.

It was what drove Rachel to go to the hospital to talk to Janet after school instead of going to the grocery store and then straight home. It was what forced her to get over whatever she was feeling and look up the support and comfort of a parent.

It was simple enough: she would just drive to the small town hospital, find Janet, tell her about what was bothering her and after being reassured and comforted, she would leave again and do some grocery shopping.

Of course, things just had to be more complicated. The small town hospital wasn’t as small as she had expected and the people working either had no idea where Janet was or were too busy preying to actually give her an answer.

She had just escaped her latest interrogator when she saw him: a young man with blond hair, unhealthy white skin and topaz coloured eyes who looked like he should be in a sports magazine, not in a hospital.

There was no doubt in her mind that this was the Dr. Cullen she had heard so much about, the foster dad/match maker if she should believe Jessica.

Rachel didn’t know what it was, maybe he felt her staring, maybe it was something else, but not even ten seconds after he had stepped into the same hallway she was in, he noticed her and looked up at her.

When their eyes met the familiar feeling of fear that all the Cullens seemed to give her, made its appearance and when he magically pulled a smile on his face, it only grew.

She instinctively took a few steps back when he made his way towards her and he noticed because he kept his distance and eyed her carefully but still with the friendly smile on his face. “Can I help you with anything?”

Rachel took another step back and felt how her back hit the wall. Panic arose immediately when the thought “I’m trapped!” crossed her mind but she pushed it aside and repeated the familiar chant.

Shaking the fear and trapped feeling off, she straightened herself and put her chin up. “I’m looking for Janet Grey but it seems nobody knows where I can find her.”

The smile and the look in his eyes became more guarded. “You must be her daughter then. Rachel, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” answered the sixteen year old. “And judging by the fact that you have the same pale skin, topaz coloured eyes and model like appearance as my creepy Biology partner, you must be his father. Dr. Cullen, isn’t it?”

Dr. Cullen seemed slightly taken back before forcing the smile back on his face. “Indeed.”

“Speaking of said Biology partner...” Rachel titled her head and gave him a smile that demanded answers. “How’s Edward?”

His guard was immediately more up. “He’s fine. Why do you ask?”

“Well, he wasn’t at school today so I guessed he must have fallen ill or something,” explained Rachel, giving him her best “you-better-not-lie-to-me-because-I-can-call-your-bullshit” look. “He is ill, right?”

“Yes,” went Dr. Cullen along. “He seems to have caught something of a bug.”

“Nothing serious, I hope?” pressed Rachel on. She wanted answers and Dr. Cullen wasn't as careful with his thoughts as his children were.

Dr. Cullen straighten himself and tried to hide the fact that she was making him nervous with all her questions, looks and her attitude. “Why would you think it is something serious?”

“No offence but your son looks like a walking corpse with how pale he is. It’s not healthy. It’s the kind of paleness you see with people who are about to drop dead.” Rachel took a step towards him even though her body was screaming at her to keep her distance, and Dr. Cullen took a step back. “As a matter of fact, you all look like walking corpses. Is it familial?” Dr. Cullen started to open his mouth to answer but she beat him to it. “Oh, I forgot. Despite the fact that you all look so much alike, you’re not actually related. My bad.” She wrapped her fingers around her chin and nodded a bit in herself before giving him a cold look. “I guess it is something of a bug then and you all have it. Most odd.”

“Janet is with a patient right now,” told the pale man her, not so subtly changing the subject. “I believe I heard something about him having a broken leg. Try the plaster room. It’s down the hallway, last door on your right.”

“Thanks.” Rachel gave him a sweet smile. “Tell Edward I hope he feels better soon.”

“I will,” answered Dr. Cullen. “It was nice meeting you.”

“I wish I could say the same but I keep having the feeling that most of what you just said, were lies.” Dr. Cullen’s eyebrows knitted together. “I’m not your average small town girl, Dr. Cullen, and I’m certainly not stupid. I’m also very good at reading people and telling whether or not someone is lying to me.” Her face darkened. “I don’t like being lied to me. It makes me wonder why the lies are necessary and what the truth is behind them.” The smile returned when she saw the unease on his face grow. “Have a nice day.” She was already walking on when she remembered something. “Oh! I completely forgot!” She stopped and turned around again, giving him an even sweeter smile. “You should take an example from your children and learn to shield your thoughts better. You never know who listens in. Still, I’m glad you think I smell good.”

The shock on his face was very satisfying and after giving one last bitchy but sweet smile, she continued her way down the hallway towards the plaster room. Janet was indeed to be found there and after agreeing to meet one another in the cafeteria, Rachel was making her way down the hallways again.

Even if having another quarrel with a Cullen hadn’t been her plan, her conversation with Dr. Cullen had taught her one thing: the Cullens had supernatural smell. It was the only reason why the blond doctor would have made the silent comment in his head that he understood why his creepy son had had trouble around since her smell was so intoxicating.

And now she thought of it, it would also explain why Edward Bloody Cullen hated her without her having really said a thing to him. If it really was her scent that had bothered him, tormented him as Dr. Cullen had been so kind to share unconsciously with her, it would explain his hostile and angry behaviour. Just not the hunger.

“So how was school?” Janet got into the booth opposite of the one Rachel was sitting in and smiled but not as cheerful as usually. “I guess not that well since you came to visit me.”

Rachel focussed on the piece of cheesecake she had gotten while waiting for Janet and thinking about her conversation with Dr. Cullen. “What makes you say that? Do I really need an excuse to come and visit you at work?”

“A month ago my answer would be no,” answered Janet in all honesty. “But things have changed. You have changed.” She leaned a little forward. “What is it, honey?”

Rachel absently pricked with her fork in her cake, taking bites of them but not eating them. “Jessamine called this morning.”

Janet let out a soft sigh and placed her hand over her free one. “That must have been hard.”

“It was.” The sixteen year old still didn’t look up. “And we couldn’t even talk that long because my classes were about to start.”

“You miss her.”

“I miss her. I miss everything.” The tears returned and this time with a vengeance, making it impossible for her to blink them back. “I miss _him_. I miss him so much.”

Janet’s hand wrapped itself around hers but Rachel still didn’t look up. “I know, honey. And I’m sorry about what I said yesterday. I went too far.” The grip tightened a little. “But I never meant to hurt you. I just wanted you to smile again, even if it was a tiny one.” Her hand tightened some more before loosening. “You you know how much I want to make people smile, you most of all, and it’s so painful to watch you. You don’t smile at all, not anymore. It is just so painful to watch.”

“ _Whose fault is that?_ ” thought Rachel bitterly. It was on the tip of her tongue but she bit it back. There was no use in saying it, no use in hurting Janet even more than she already had done and was doing.

Instead she looked up and asked: “Why?” Janet gave her a confused look. “Why did we move?”

Guilt flashed through the blonde woman’s eyes. “It was just time for a change.”

“But you promised,” reminded Rachel her, deciding to use what she thought they had promised her. “You promised we wouldn’t move until after I graduated.”

More guilt flashed through the blue eyes. “And we hate the fact that we broke it.” Anger and pain flashed through the sixteen year old. So she hadn’t imagined it. They had actually made that promise. “But after all those animal attacks, we just wanted to go somewhere where it was safe and peaceful.”

“It was safe and peaceful in La Baule,” protested Rachel. “The animal was caught and killed. Everything had gone back to normal.”

“We were thinking about moving long before it was caught.” Janet leaned back. “And there’s nothing we can change about it. Not anymore.”

The brown haired girl diverted her eyes back to her cake. “You could have told me you were thinking about it before everything had been taken care of. And you could have been honest to me about why you two were going to United States instead of lying and telling me you were visiting Grandma and Grandpa to see if you could work things out.”

“I know,” whispered Janet, also looking at the table. The guilt in her eyes only grew. “And we should have. But at that time we thought it wouldn’t be wise.”

Rachel said nothing but cursed herself for visiting Janet. What had she expected? That the blonde nurse would completely understand and promise her all would be taken care of? That they would move back to France?

She knew it were unreasonable thoughts but somewhere in the back of her mind, she had thought them.

One thing was for certain, the comfort and the support she so desperately had looked for, she wouldn’t find here.

“We’re going out tomorrow,” told Janet her, snapping Rachel out of her thoughts again. “The three of us. Billy Black invited us over for supper.”

A frown knitted itself between her eyebrows. “Who is Billy Black again?”

“The man who helped us move?” tried Janet. “Who helped us find a house? He was a good friend of the former chief and thought it would be only nice to help the new one out as much as he did the old one.” A faint memory of a tanned man in a wheelchair surfaced. “He has a son around your age. Jacob is his name.”

“Ah.”

Janet leaned forward and grasped her hand again. “You will come with us, won’t you?”

Rachel shrugged. “I will think about it.”

And that was it. After all that, there was nothing more to say. She hardly answered when Janet asked on about her day at school and she wasn’t willing to share much more about how much she missed France, Jessamine and her ex.

Eventually they parted ways again and Rachel went to the grocery shopping feeling worse than she had felt when she had left school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there lovely readers,
> 
> I know this update is a week late but unforunately I was ill and not able to work on the chapter or sit behind a computer at all. But it's here and I promise the next update will be on time and this Wednesday.  
> What to tell you about this chapter? It was originally named "Second Day" but I thought that was too obvious and changed it to "Things The Mind Can't Keep To Itself". It's a reference to both what Rachel found out and to what she is struggling with and, evidently, can't keep to herself.  
> The original chapter had a lot of talking between Janet and Rachel about the Cullens, Rachel's friends in a different country, the reason she broke up with her ex and how much she missed France. Since Rachel's relationship with Janet (and Charles) is a lot more strained in this new version, I scratched that.  
> Also, the phone conversation Rachel has with Jessamine, originally happened in Chapter 3 but I moved this since I wasn't really thinking about time differences when I first wrote it and now I am and I discovered Jessamine would have answered the phone in the early morning, when it was still night. Not the most believable.  
> The sedating feeling Rachel also felt in this chapter while staring at Jasper will be explained in the next chapter. You will just have to wait till Wednesday to find out.
> 
> Till next time.


	6. Look Who’s Back

**Chapter 5: Look Who’s Back**

“All the memories resurfaced. Her sight blurred with tears while the iron grip of fear and panic tightened around her. An animal attack...”

* * *

Things got better and worse after that second day. They got better in the way that more students found the courage to walk up towards her, introduce themselves and take the time to get to know her. It was through that that Rachel managed to expand her group of “friends” instead of sticking with just the popular kids, which was a lot better for her mental state.

Things got also better due to her meeting Jacob Black. He was a year younger than her and unfortunately didn’t go to Forks High but at the High School in the Indian reservation La Push, where he and his father Billy Black also lived. Still, he was a nice kid with a great sense of humour and she had felt a connection with him the moment they had met. For the first time since they had moved to Forks, she had truly enjoyed herself and had cracked a smile.

Things got worse because she was becoming more and more suspicious. The day after she had visited the hospital and met Dr. Cullen, had been the day none of the Cullens had been at school and she had openly shared her suspicion with the rest of the school. The next day they had all been back again, except for Edward Bloody Cullen, and looking more hostile and suspicious then before.

The sedating feeling she had felt briefly on her second day returned after that too and Rachel had quickly realised that Jasper Hale, the blonde one who looked like he was in constant pain according to Jessica, was responsible. She did not know how but the anger and the desire to make him taste some of his own medicine she had felt after that discovery, had caused whatever he used on her to bounce back. After that, he had stopped with whatever he had been doing. Instead he started watching and following her, clearly determined to figure her out but never going as far as to talk to her.

The remaining three kept their distance as much as they could. Except for shooting some glares at her during the breaks and some suspicious look in the parking lot, Emmett and Rosalie avoided her like she was the plague itself. Alice also kept her distance but came closer and looked a lot less hostile than her boyfriend and her two siblings. She still had that same curiosity and sometimes approached her and opened her mouth as if to say something before changing her mind and leaving again. It only made Rachel more suspicious, especially when she started to get the feeling that the pixie like girl knew things she couldn’t possibly know. Things that hadn’t even happened yet.

Another reason why things had gotten worse was the fact that somehow it had gotten out that she was in fact single and that made her wanted, very wanted. She was constantly flirted with and asked out and it was starting to become not only annoying but also painful. The headaches that had gone down now that she was starting to get used to the thoughts of her fellow students, came back with a vengeance and she hated the fact that she had to constantly listen to and see the fantasies almost every single boy at school had about her as well as the fantasies of some of the girls.

And the final and perhaps most important reason: her nightmares. They had started after Jasper had stopped trying to sedate her and started following her around. She didn’t know whether or not it had something to do with one another but it was certainly suspicious.

The nightmares were always the same and felt very real. She was always running through a long dark alley, terrified and her lungs burning, and she was being chased by two people. Who they were or what they looked like she didn’t know because it was never shown. She would keep running until she ran out of the alley and into a ballet studio. There she would freeze and look around in fear before backing away and turning around. And the moment she would do that, she was grabbed by her throat and she would feel a sharp pain her neck, causing her to scream. That was always the moment she woke up, screaming the lungs out of her body and crying in fear.

She was very relieved that Charles and Janet had stopped running into her room whenever she was screaming years ago because she didn’t want to tell them about her nightmares. They knew that too and although they knew she was having them, they never asked.

The third week started very promising. By that time, Rachel had forced her weird Biology partner and his strange behaviour out of her thoughts and had gotten used to the four remaining Cullens at school and their even stranger behaviour. She had also finished her room and she had started on the master bedroom and the hallways on the first floor.

That promising start came to an end when she woke up on Tuesday and saw that it was not only snowing but that temperatures had also dropped below zero and the rain from the day before had frozen over.

She didn’t mind the cold and she was even happy to see it snowing but the fact that the roads were slippery and she had to watch where she was going, she did mind and she knew that it was a sign that that day wouldn’t go too well.

After dressing extra warm and taking a long hot shower to get the cold of the night out of her bones, she made her way downstairs and found that Charles and Janet had already left again.

She had hoped that now they were settling in as well, she would see them more often. She had been wrong to hope. She did not see them more often. Worse, she saw them even less. It made her wonder what they were up to.

Rachel pushed the conspiracy theories that were forming in her head away and focussed on the plans for that afternoon. Now that she had finished her room, her well deserved shopping trip had finally arrived and she would go shopping with Angela, Jessica and Katie from the “popular” group and with Gianna Patel and Laney Davies, two girls who were in her Visual Arts class.

Gianna was big on the art history and wanted to become an Art or History teacher after she graduated from High School. She was a tanned girl with black hair and big dark brown eyes. Although she looked like she had an attitude, she was rather shy and insecure. Only when people insulted her, the people she cared about or things she liked, that attitude came up.

Laney was the typical wallflower kind of girl. She had long dark brown hair and light brown eyes. She had a talent for anything with a lens, either it being a photo camera, a mobile phone with a camera or a film camera. She of course hadn’t noticed it until a teacher had pointed it out and persuaded her to follow Visual Arts.

Neither of the two girls had been big on Rachel’s shopping trip after hearing that popular girls Jessica Stanley and Katie Marshall were also coming along but the sixteen year old had managed to persuade them by explaining she wanted their opinion on not only the furniture she was going to buy but also about the new colours for the rest of the house, since the two of them along with Angela were a lot more useful in that than Jessica and Katie were.

Rachel’s head snapped up and she snapped out of her thoughts when she heard the front door closed. “Rachel?” It sounded like Charles.

She frowned slightly while answering: “In the kitchen.”

It was Charles and she couldn’t help but snigger when he stepped into the kitchen. The man was soaked to the bone from head to toe.

“You’re dripping,” laughed Rachel, not being able to contain her amusement anymore.

“Laugh while you still can,” threatened Charles, sounding as grumpy as he looked. “In a minute or so you will have to go out there yourself and it won’t be pretty.” He grabbed a towel and started rubbing his hair dry. “And, just to add, it’s your fault that I’m ruining Janet’s perfect and well picked out carpet.”

“First of all, I picked out the carpet. Janet had nothing to say in the matter,” summed Rachel up, giving Charles an unamused look. “And secondly, how exactly is it my fault that you’re soaked?”

“I had to wait outside for an hour long while the sky came crashing down because our local mechanic thought it was more important to ask how you were doing then to put the new tires on your car as I had asked him to do.”

Rachel smiled amused. “How was Jacob?”

“He was fine,” grumbled Charles. “He certainly was happy I was coming to him for the job instead of going to the town’s mechanic. He said he needed the money really hard.”

“For the Rabbit,” explained Rachel. The Chief of Police gave her an odd look, causing her to roll her eyes. “The car he is working on.” She rolled her eyes in annoyance when he still didn’t seem to remember. Jacob had talked none stop about that car during their supper at the Blacks. “Anyway, I didn’t ask for new tires.”

“I know. But Winter has only just started here, kid,” explained Charles, hanging the towel back where it belonged. “And Billy advised me to use winter tires since the roads can get rather slippery.”

“Ah,” was Rachel’s only response as she put her bowl in the sink before turning around and leaning against the kitchen counter. “I won’t be eating home tonight, by the way. I’m going shopping in Port Angeles.”

“The furniture will have the house to themselves then,” joked Charles, causing the sixteen year old to give him another unamused look while crossing her arms. “Janet is going out with some colleagues and I will be in Mason County.”

“Mason County?” Rachel frowned. “That’s a long way from here. What do they need from you?”

“Nothing. I volunteered to lend a hand.” The sixteen year old gave him a look to tell him she wasn’t satisfied with that answer, causing the elder to sigh deeply. “I had really hoped you wouldn’t press on.”

That was not what she wanted to hear and it did the already forming conspiracy theories in her head no good. “Charles.” Rachel’s voice was low and threatening. “What are you not telling me?”

Charles let out another sigh before answering: “A security guard there was killed by some kind of animal.”

Those words caused Rachel’s world to stop spinning for a moment and not in a good way. All the memories resurfaced. Her sight blurred with tears while the iron grip of fear and panic tightened around her.

An animal attack...

“It’s France all over again, huh?” continued Charles, a lot more careful this time. “We moved to get away from it all and now it seems it just followed.” Her eyes snapped up and stared at him, widened in fear. He knew it and his gaze softened immediately. “This is why I didn’t want to tell you.” He moved closer and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, crushing her against his chest. “It will be okay, kid. Nothing will happen. Like you said, Mason County is a long way from here.” She clenched her hands into fists to stop them from shaking and closed her eyes while leaning against him, telling herself to get a grip on herself and push the tears away. It was not the right moment to break down and cry or have a panic attack. “We will get whatever it is that is terrorizing the people in no time, even without the help of that incredible detective of a boyfriend of yours.”

Rachel tensed the moment he said those words and it felt like someone had dropped a bucket of ice-cold water over her. She immediately pulled away, taking a few steps away from him and towards the hall and her escape route.

“I’ve got to go,” she whispered, her eyes still glued on the floor. “I’m already running late so I really need to go.”

“Rachel...” tried Charles. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have mentioned...”

“It’s okay,” interrupted Rachel, finally looking up. His face was twisted in pain and it seemed that every word he spoke caused him absolute anguish. “I get it. And you’re probably right.” She put some more steps back and the pain in the green eyes grew. “But I really need to go. Thanks for the tires.”

“Don’t mention it,” nodded Charles, his face still showing the anguish and the pain very evident in his voice. “I just want you to be safe.”

Rachel gave him a nod as answer and turned around to walk away but stopped and looked back, her eyes not hiding the worry or the doubt. “Be careful.”

Finally the pain lessened and a small smile returned. “Always am, kiddo.”

She gave him a last hesitant smile before hurrying out of the house, grabbing her coat from the peg as she went. Now she knew again why she also didn’t mind the fact that Charles and Janet were so little home.

 

* * *

 

Rachel spent her ride to school going over what could possibly have happened in Mason County in her head and came to the conclusion to ask Charles for more details when she saw him again. Perhaps that was unwise and would only cause her more pain but not knowing anything about what was happening, would also be unwise.

When she arrived at school she forced herself to forget all about it and reminded herself that being absent wasn’t going to help anyone and certainly wouldn’t magically solve the riddle.

So she waved and greeted several students while making her way to school, and listened to Eric, who joined her the moment she entered the building, with a bright smile on her face although she did not understand why the thing he was writing about was so big or why he needed her playlist. She managed to subtly dump him before he got the chance to ask her out, like his thoughts betrayed he was planning to, and walk the rest of the way to her English class with Laney.

The rest of the morning passed mostly the same and Rachel was very relieved that despite the bad start, she had a good day. Social Science wasn’t as awkward as the last two times, the first break she spent outside in the snow with her girls to discuss the final details of the afternoon’s shopping trip and she was back in her element with P.E. since they were given the choice to either follow for an entire month a course gymnastics or a course tennis. She chose the first.

When she was walking with Jessica to the cafeteria from the sport halls, it started snowing again and Mike, who had made it his sacred duty to trail behind them like a dog, was more than excited about it.

He was bouncing up and down, yelling in his enthusiasm: “It’s snowing! It’s snowing!”

“We can see that, Mike,” sighed Rachel, rolling her eyes and not hiding her annoyance about the fact that he was practically yelling in her ear. “Thanks for stating the obvious.”

Mike did not hear her since he was that loud and the sixteen year old rolled her eyes again before giving Jessica a wink. The other girl burst out into a fit of giggles when her friend grabbed a hand full of snow and those giggles turned into a full blown laugh when said friend dumped said snow down Mike’s collar, causing the unaware boy to jump half a metre in the air and giving the most girl like scream ever.

And before he had the chance to realise what exactly had happened or figure out who was responsible, the two girls had made a run for it and had taken shelter in the cafeteria, laughing their heads off.

Mike joined them soon enough again and wasn’t very amused. “That wasn’t funny, Rachel.”

“I beg to differ,” laughed Rachel, grabbing her lunch while putting on her innocent face. “Did you not hear yourself scream?”

“I certainly did,” joined Jessica in. “You totally sounded like a girl.”

“Yeah, Mike,” teased the other girl. “Who knew that one of the star players of the school’s football team could be such a girl?”

Mike just huffed and walked towards their table, chased by laughter. Jessica and Rachel followed him soon enough after grabbing all they wanted for lunch, wondering together what the gymnastic course would teach them.

It was halfway through lunch that she finally noticed something: the Cullen table had five people sitting at it, not four. Edward Cullen had finally returned.

The five of them were laughing, the hair of the boys covered in melting snow, and she just as she looked, Alice and Rosalie moved quickly away when Emmett leaned towards them in a desperate try to get the melting snow in his hair on them.

Rachel huffed and looked away. They were just three of the many people whose hair was covered in melting snow but where the snow made everyone else look like uncaring and sloppy, it made the three of them look handsome and even more magazine worthy. It was too perfect to be normal.

Carelessly throwing her muffin from one hand to another, she noted casually: “Look who’s back.”

She didn’t need to clarify because everyone immediately looked at the Cullens, knowing all too well that she only talked casually with a hint of coldness when talking about the pale skinned teenagers.

Jessica huffed too before looking away. “The five are complete again.”

“Finally,” added Katie. “I thought he died.”

“Apparently not, which is a shocker on itself.” Rachel threw her muffing to her right hand for the last time. “I guess he just didn’t think we were worthy of his presence these last two weeks and it would only be kind to honour us with it again after having missed out on it for so long.”

Laney, who had been reading until Rachel had mentioned the Cullens, closed her book and put it in her bag. “He is looking at you, Rach.”

“Really?” The girl in questioned leaned back and deliberately didn’t look over her shoulder. “Don’t pay attention to it. He is just trying, and failing, to prove that looks can in fact kill someone.”

Jessica, who had decided to look for her instead, quickly corrected this. “He doesn’t look that murderous this time. In fact, he doesn’t look angry at all. More curious and unsatisfied about something.”

“That’s new. Maybe he is hoping that not looking hostile now will make up for his behaviour from two weeks ago and save him a lecture.”

Gianna leaned a little forward. “You’re still going to call him out on it?”

“Hell yeah,” answered Rachel, popping a piece of muffin in her mouth. “Just because he has been missing for two weeks doesn’t mean he is excused for his behaviour.” She huffed again before also leaning forward and dropping her voice. “I just don’t get what their problem is. They make my ex look social and he was anything but. I seriously thought I would never meet anyone as asocial as he was but the Cullens are trying very hard to prove me wrong.”

And, of course, out of all the things she said Mike only cared for one thing. “You have an ex?”

“Several, actually,” answered Rachel, rolling dramatically with her eyes, before leaning towards him and asking sweetly: “Why? Do I look like the girl who doesn’t date or have boyfriends?”

She did this often and the poor boy still hadn’t gotten used to it, which made it only more amusing. It was funny and rather fascinating to see him go as red as he did whenever she fake flirted with him. “No!” he all but yelled. “No, you look anything but... I mean, you are defiantly the opposite of that.”

Rachel’s smile dropped and her eyes got a dangerous gleam. To anyone who didn’t know her, they would think Mike crossed the line but most of the people at the table knew better now and knew she was only teasing. “Thank you so much for calling me a slut. I appreciate it, Mike. I really do.”

Realising what exactly he had indicated with his words, Mike turned even redder. “No! I didn’t mean that!”

The table erupted in laughter upon hearing his reaction and Lee clasped his hands on the blonde boy’s shoulder. “Chill, Mike. She is messing with you.”

The relief that washed over his face made things only more amusing, as were the three little words he muttered. “I knew that.”

“Sure you did,” laughed Connor, speaking out what everyone else thought and that was that Mike was lying.

The rest of the lunch break passed quickly and was spent teasing one another. Only Mike was left out, since they felt slightly sorry for him. The fact that he hadn’t spoken a word since Rachel had embarrassed him also played a part.

When the bell rang, they all parted ways again but only after making Rachel promise to give them a show during Biology, something which she gladly promised. Edward Cullen had kept her waiting for two weeks and she wasn’t giving him another second.

It was the only thing Jessica talked about when she and Rachel along with Gianna and Laney made their way from Math to their next class an hour after lunch. Even the two shy girls were excited and that had everything to do with the fact that the Cullens didn’t hide their rudeness to Rachel and they truly believed she deserved better than that.

“We want details after school,” said Jessica in her most threatening voice when they reached the Biology classroom. “Lots of them.”

“And you will have them,” promised Rachel rather amused. “I will tell you girls all about it under the delight of a good cup of Starbucks coffee.”

“It won’t be the same as actually being there, though,” chuckled Gianna. “Honestly, I’ve never once been this disappointed to not have Biology.

The ever kind and compassionate Laney shuffled a bit closer and gave Rachel a pleading look. “You won’t be too mean to him, will you? I mean, his behaviour is inexcusable but that doesn’t mean you have to step to his level.”

“Mean?” Rachel shook her head and gave her a reassuring smile. “I won’t be mean, Laney, and I certainly won’t step to his level. I will just tell him the truth and I will only be a bitch when he does or says something to deserve it.”

“His behaviour from two weeks ago is already enough reason to be a bitch to him,” disagreed Jessica, rolling her eyes as dramatically as Rachel had during the lunch break. “Don’t go easy on him or else he won’t get it and it will prove he can get away with it.”

“There’s a difference in going easy on him and being a bitch, Jess,” reminded Rachel her. “There’s a big difference.”

“I don’t care,” was Jessica’s answer with a bright smile. “Good luck. Give him hell.”

And with that she walked on. Rachel rolled her eyes and shook her head before turning to the two other girls. “Don’t mind her. She wants him to suffer since he turned her down several times and bruised her ego.”

“That explains it all,” chuckled Gianna. “We still want those details, though.”

“You will get them,” promised Rachel with a warm smile. “I will see you guys after school.”

The two shyer girls smiled back while chanting the same thing before walking after Jessica towards Spanish. The sixteen year old watched them go and then entered her own class.

Her eyes immediately darted to her table and like the last two weeks, she found it empty. Realising there was a fair chance he would deliberately skip this class to avoid her, she rolled her eyes at how pathetic that would be and sighed as she took a seat.

She had spent the last two weeks on her own because her lab partner was too “sick” to come to school. That meant she had twice as much work. Normally she wouldn’t have minded that but things were hectic and tiring and American High School teachers certainly gave their students a lot more homework than French High School teachers.

Like usual, she took out her book and notepad and started drawing. She wasn’t someone who sat and waited without doing something. It was boring and rather pathetic.

She had only just started when a shadow walked past her. She looked up for a moment to confirm it was who she thought it was and when she got that, she focused on her pad and drawing again.

It was tactic. Ignoring and looking indifferent could fool anyone into believing one did not care and was a forgiving person. It was also the smartest way to get the element of surprise and Rachel was planning on getting that with the strange boy. That way he had less time to think about his answers or come up with excuses.

Unfortunately, no one had ever told him that when a girl ignores a guy, it would be best to respect that and leave her alone.

“Hello.” She wasn’t surprised to find that his voice was soft and melodic but she was surprised he was talking to her and in a friendly tone even. So Rachel stopped drawing when he spoke and eyed him for a moment before focussing her gaze on her pad again and continuing her work. He didn’t get the hint and continued. “I didn’t get the chance to introduce myself two weeks ago.” She stopped drawing again and made it very obvious that she was checking if there was perhaps someone behind her to who he was talking. Of course there wasn’t and after giving him an odd look, she chose to ignore him again and continued to draw. But he proved there and then he wasn’t one to give up. “I’m Edward Cullen.”

That were the words that did it. Rachel slammed her pencil not too gently on her pad and turned her body to him, glaring. “I’m sorry, are you talking to _me_?”

The guy had the nerve to smile amused. “To who else?”

Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “You have some nerve, Cullen. I’ve to give you that.” She slowly leaned towards him and he immediately leaned back, holding his breath. It was just another thing that proved her theory that the Cullens had supernatural smell. “You think you can come in here and be all nice and civil to me after acting as if I was your personal demon? After trying to get out of Biology simply because you share it with me? After disappearing for two entire weeks?” She snorted and shook her head. “Guess what? You’re wrong. And didn’t you notice I was busy with something?” She turned away from him again and picked up her pencil. “Do me a favour and don’t talk to me.”

“I was only trying to be polite,” tried Edward Cullen to make her see.

“You should have thought of that two weeks ago instead of now,” was Rachel’s cold response, not looking up this time and radiating indifference. “And what is it with you Cullens and pretending you’re doing something because it is polite? Nobody buys so drop it.”

There was a moment of silence before he spoke again. “What happened two weeks ago had nothing to do with you. I wasn’t feeling very well and I’m afraid I took that out in the wrong.”

“Nothing to do with me?” repeated Rachel, slowly raising her head and turning her focus on him again. “Are you really going to try and sell me that shit?” She leaned towards him again, her eyes flashing dangerously. “You seemed fine until the moment I walked in, Mr Cullen. I’m not an idiot. I can put two and two together.” She eyed him up and down, making a mental note of what he was wearing and what his body language was telling her. “You and your family are hiding something. I know you are. And I also know that you know I know and I know you don’t want me to find it out. It is why your brother tried to magically sedate me and why he is following me around to figure out what I am hiding.” She tore her eyes away from him and started drawing again. “And because I’m feeling generous, I will let you in on a little secret.” She looked at him from out the corners of her eyes. “The harder you try to make sure I don’t find out, the more determined I get to do find out.”

She saw how he opened his mouth to say something to do but at that moment, Mr Banner appeared in front of their table. “Ah, Miss Grey. Just the person I was looking for.”

Rachel smiled sweetly. “Well, you’ve found me. What is it I can do for you, Mr Banner?”

Mr Banner drummed with his fingers on the wooden top of the table. “In France, did you ever examine cells and labelled their phases?”

Rachel crooked her head a little and asked, just to be sure: “As in phases of Mitosis?”

Mr Banner nodded. “Exactly.”

“Yeah, we examined them last year. We used both the blastulas of a whitefish and the cells of a plant.”

She remembered this quite clearly because their Biology teacher had arranged some laboratory technician to give them a lesson about Meiosis and Mitosis and what exactly the difference between them was, as well as the difference between the Mitosis of animal cells and plant cells.

“Today’s lab will be easy for you then,” nodded Mr Banner, clearly impressed. “We are only looking at Onion Cells.”

Rachel shrugged carelessly and gave him a smile. “It’s been more than half a year since that lab. I’m sure I can use the repetition.”

Mr Banner nodded, clearly satisfied with that answer, and made his way to his desk to start the lesson. She watched and listened to him, very aware that the Cullen boy beside her was staring at her again, almost as if he was trying to figure her out.

“ _Good luck with that_ ,” she snorted in herself.

The moment Mr Banner had given the order to start, her lab partner pushed the microscope towards her. “Ladies first.”

She picked the first slide and put it under the microscope as she rolled her eyes. “You can drop the act.”

“What act?”

He sounded truly confused so Rachel tore her eyes away from the microscope to look at him and saw that he looked as confused as he had sounded. “This nice act. You made it pretty clear last time that you don’t like me. And guess what, I don’t like you much either.” She looked into the microscope again. “Besides, it’s not going to stop me from looking for the truth. More likely it would do the exact opposite. So you can drop the act and go back to disliking me.”

“Have you considered that it is not an act at all?” wanted Edward to know.

“I have.” She straightened up and pushed the microscope to him. “Prophase. You can look if you like.” He took the microscope but hardly gave it a glance before muttering the same thing and writing it down. “But I’ve been told that you Cullens keep to yourselves and don’t talk or like anyone besides that little family circle. So if you are really curious about me, I would only find it more suspicious.”

“Anaphase,” muttered the bronze haired boy after hardly looking at slice two.

He wanted to write it down but Rachel’s hand shot out and grabbed the microscope, causing him to look up and meet her glare. “You’re probably not used to this but being lab partners means you do a lab _together_ , not by yourself.”

He had the nerve to smile and passed her the microscope. “Right.” She huffed and looked into it. As she did, he responded to her previous statement. “We do keep to ourselves but that’s because everyone else is rather easy to read. You’re not.”

“Worst pick-up line ever,” muttered Rachel rather amused under her breath. “Anaphase indeed.” She held up her hand. “Slice three?” He handed it to her and she could feel the hesitation coming from him to come that close, causing her to look up at him. “I don’t bite, you know?”

“I’m not too sure about that,” chuckled Edward. “Your bark is certainly bad.”

Rachel’s eyes narrowed. “Only when people ask for it.” She looked into the microscope again and answered “Interphase” before pushing the microscope towards him with a bit more force than was necessary. “Let’s say for Pete’s sake that I buy your stupid excuses and that your nice act is in fact sincere…” She crooked her head, watching him like a hawk. “You were gone for two entire weeks.”

She saw him tense. “Yes,” he answered carefully. “I was out of town. Personal reasons.”

Rachel’s eyebrow practically shot up. “You were out of town?”

Edward eyed her carefully, not having missed the suspicion in her voice. “Yes…”

“How odd. Your father said you were at home, sick.”

She shouldn’t feel so satisfied as to catch him lie but seeing him swallow and catching the discomfort in his eyes, was extremely satisfying.

“I was at first,” he tried to straighten the lies to the same level. “But he thought that some cleaner air would do me good and we have family in Alaska so I went to visit them.”

“Alaska is no short journey,” pointed Rachel out, still not buying the story. “Especially for someone who isn’t feeling well.”

“It was worth it.”

She smiled even more satisfied when he practically dove on to the microscope to prevent her seeing his eyes and couldn’t help the cockiness in her voice as she breathed out: “I’m sure it was.”

He looked twice as long into the microscope before swapping the swipes and writing down “Interphase” on the paper. This continued for the next few minutes as they checked the last two slices and wrote them down.

Only after they had finished, he spoke again. “So are you enjoying the weather?”

Rachel, who had started drawing again, almost cringed at hear him asking that and turned to look at him again. “Are you seriously asking me about the weather?”

“Yes…” She smiled at hearing the careful tone again. He was a quick learner and knew that when she asked him something in disbelief, she either wasn’t buying it or he had said something stupid in her eyes. “I guess I am.”

“Asking someone about the weather is probably the worst and dullest thing you can do. It just screams you feel uncomfortable and awkward and don’t know what to say. Did no one ever tell you that?”

“No, I was never notified,” answered Edward. “But I could be generally interested in your opinion about the weather.”

“Yeah… No.” Rachel shook her head and turned her focus on her notepad again. “No one is ever interested in anyone’s opinion about the weather. It’s just a topic that is brought up to keep a dying conversation going.”

“I’m still generally interested in what you think of it,” pressed Edward on, causing her to roll her eyes.

“I’ve lived in England for a little more than two years, spent practically every Christmas in the mountains to ski, had probably one of my best holidays in Bergen where it rains 24/7 a year and if I don’t like something, my facial expression practically screams it,” she summed up and she gave him a dry look. “What do you think I think about the weather?”

Much to her dismay, Edward Cullen just didn’t seem to get the hint. “You aren’t even a bit resentful that you will have to go shopping while it is snowing? Or travel all the way to Port Angeles on icy roads?”

Rachel’s body tensed and her suspicion immediately took her over. “How do you know I’m going shopping after school?”

“I overheard something about it today,” shrugged Edward as if it was nothing.

“How most unusual.” Rachel’s eyes narrowed. “You see, I made sure that the girls I’m going shopping with didn’t talk about it except when we were all together and somewhere remote, to prevent people from feeling left out. And I’m pretty sure that every time we were talking about it today, you weren’t anywhere near us.”

“It still must have come out or else I wouldn’t know about it, now would I?” was Edward’s response. She narrowed her eyes even more at him and didn’t hide her suspicion or the fact that she wasn’t buying his lies, again. So he changed the subject to the original one again. “So don’t you miss the sun and the heat?”

“Why do people keep asking me that?” muttered Rachel under her breath while rolling her eyes. “Apparently you don’t know much about France or else you would have known that around this time of the year, it’s winter there too which means low temperatures, rain, a lot of wind, snow and very little sun.”

“But you will miss it, when the summer comes?” pressed Edward on.

“Maybe.” Rachel tapped impatiently with her pencil on her notepad, getting more and more annoyed with the boy by the second. “Most likely not.”

“Why not? You look like a girl who enjoys the sun.”

“And you look like a boy who has a sun allergy and curses even the tiniest bit of sunlight,” shot Rachel back, glaring. “What is with the twenty questions?”

“I’m just trying to figure you out,” defended Edward himself. “Like I said before, you’re very hard to read.”

“Don’t,” told Rachel him. “Seriously don’t. It’s still the worst pick-up line ever and I hate people who are prying.” She looked him up and down again and gave him a disgusted look while adding: “Especially guys who think it’s cool to wear coloured contact lenses.”

Edward frowned. “What makes you think I wear contact lenses?”

“One: normal people don’t have topaz coloured eyes,” pointed Rachel out. “And two: I’m pretty sure your eyes were black last time. Eyes don’t change colour so the only _reasonable_ explanation is that you have contacts.”

It was Edward’s turn to tense and all he answered was: “Right…”

It was the last thing he said, which was Rachel found both a relieve and a shame. It was a relieve because he finally had stopped talking and asking her all kind of questions. It was a shame because it also meant she couldn’t pry answers out of him. It seemed they were back at where they started, with him trying to get as far away from her as possible and disliking her and with her trying to figure out what the hell is problem was.

When the bell rang, he was once again up before the rest and out of the classroom before the rest. Rachel once more watched him go but this time she realised something. He had been curious about her at first, that wouldn’t stop since she had hardly answered any of his questions or given anything away. That meant he wouldn’t stop trying to figure her out and that meant she could use that to figure his secret out.

Because that was something she truly realised as she watched him go. He had a secret, a big secret, and she had something to do with it, or else he wouldn’t have had so much trouble with her scent. She certainly wouldn’t rest until she had figured it out, no matter what the consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there lovely reades,
> 
> I'm a day late again :( Terribly sorry. I wasn't feelig well yesterday and slept almost all day and this update was just kind of forgotten.  
> Is there something I have to tell you about the chapter you just read? A few things.   
> First of all, in the original story, Rachel was very careful and tried very hard to prevent the Cullens from finding out she can read minds. As you might have noticed, in this story she isn't. This has everything to do with the fact that I wanted the Cullens to be more careful with their thoughts around her because I realised that if they wouldn't, she would have figured their secret out in no time. So through this it is more believable. It will take some time, though, before they get the confirmation that she can indeed read minds.  
> Second of all, their hostility towards her. In the original one they were more than a little curious about her but she was a lot nicer and Bella like in that one. As noticed, she doesn't keep her opinion about them or her suspicion to herself and openly shares it, which would cause anyone with a secret to become hostile.  
> Third of all, Jasper's hostility towards Rachel. When I wrote the original version, I had no idea there excisted anything called "Midnight Sun" and I only recently discovered it. I'm glad it came out, even as unfinished as it is, because it gave me intell on what the Cullens thought of Bella before she and Edward got something. It's only natural that they feel the same way about Rachel, even more strongly in my opinion because she is so open about it.   
> Fourth: it is mentioned that the Cullens, all of them, weren't at school on Rachel's third day. I deliberately put that in because I wanted to let you guys know just how suspicious te Cullens are and how much they see Rachel as a threat. That day they weren't there was the day they were planning to move but when rumours reached them about how much Rachel had blabbed in their absence, they returned in the hope that would keep her silent. This is also something that is mentioned in "Midnight Sun".  
> Fifth: Edward returns and the stand-off I know some of you have wanted, happened. In the original one, there was no stand-off. They were friendly towards one another and talked about the exact same things as Edward and Bella. It was one of the first things I changed because I realised it made Rachel too much like Bella and I didn't want her to swoon over him like Bella did.   
> Sixth: the introduction of two new Original Characters. I created Laney and Gianna because I knw Rachel would never just stick with the small group of popular kids Meyers introduced to us and named. It's a small school but there are still other students so I made at least two of them up. And as was noted in this chapter, because they aren't that popular and therefor a little more normal, it is good for Rachel's mental health.  
> And finally, the mention of the animal attacks Rachel and her parents dealt with before, in France. It will be revealed in a later chapter why this scares her so much and her ex, as mentioned in this chapter, will play a big role in them and not only because he helped Charles hunt.  
> I can't hardly wait to post the next chapter because I'm that curious to know what you guys will think of it but unfortunately I haven't finished it yet. I hope I will be able to update it this Wednesday but I'm not making any promises.  
> Till next time.


	7. A Near Death Experience

**Chapter 6: A Near Death Experience**

“ _Her eyes slowly opened but the world was still dancing around her and what was even more confusing, was the fact that the light kept switching from dark to light._ ” 

* * *

When Rachel woke up the next morning at the sound of the alarm on her mobile, she had to remind herself that she actually needed her phone and that throwing it against the wall like her old alarm wasn’t going to solve anything.

So instead of throwing it against the wall and going back to sleep, she groaned and forced herself out of bed and into the shower in the hope that the warm water would wake her up in more than one way.

She had hardly closed an eye that night and the sleep she had managed to get, hadn’t helped her to get some rest. Most of the night she had been lying awake with her mobile in her hand, debating whether or not she had to call in reinforcements after getting more details out of Charles about the animal attack. The other part of the night she had been troubled by nightmares.

She wasn’t rested and she certainly wasn’t ready to face another day of school. Sure, the shopping trip had been great: it had ended up as a bounding experience for all of them and the five girls had assured her they would have her back since the Cullens weren’t letting go of their hostility or desire to figure her out. But the Cullens were the least of her problems right now and she didn’t want to think about them, let alone worry about all the boys who were becoming more desperate in asking her out now that Valentine’s Day was nearing.

Her thoughts were on a completely different level than that of her fellow teenagers and she knew she would never survive the day if she got lost in her thoughts as often as she did. But what choice did she have? Not showing up would also raise questions and that was exactly what she was trying to avoid: people asking questions. She had no other choice but to go and pray that people would be too distracted to notice her absentmindedness.

To help that distraction a little, she dressed in something that was a little riskier than her normal clothing before making her way downstairs to the kitchen. Maybe the miracle called coffee could force her to wake up a little more.

She was just pouring herself a cup when suddenly someone said: “You look terrible.”

Rachel screamed and dropped the cup before swiftly turning around to see who the hell was behind her. It was Janet, who looked just as shocked.

“Janet!” The sixteen year old pressed a hand against her heart and took a deep breath in. “You scared the living daylight out of me!”

“I noticed,” answered the blonde woman, still looking shocked. “Care to tell me how exactly I did that? Normally you are aware of everything and everyone around you and it is almost impossible to sneak up on you.”

“I’m tired,” told Rachel her, rubbing her eyes and casting a grieving look at the broken cup on the ground. “I didn’t sleep well. You know I’m not my usual self when I’m tired.”

“Does this have anything to do with the fact that you spend half the night looking at the screen of your cell phone?” The brown haired girl crooked a questioning eye when the woman asked her that. “Next time you want to gaze at your cell phone all night long and you don’t want anyone to know, do it without the lights on. That way you won’t have me checking up on you every few hours to see what is wrong.”

Rachel rubbed her eyes. “Noted.”

Janet took a step towards her with a worried look in her eyes. “And perhaps you can also make a note of leaving the police work to your father?” The girl’s head snapped up and she gave her a funny look. “You’ve been asking questions about that animal attack.”

She rolled her eyes upon hearing the accusing tone in the woman’s voice. “I wanted to know what was going on and if they are similar to the ones in France. How is that wrong?”

“It wouldn’t be if it really was just that but it isn’t,” pointed Janet out. “You’re looking into it and that means you’re getting involved in it. Do I have to remind you of what happened last time you got involved in those animal attacks?”

“What kind of a question is that?” glared Rachel. “I’m the last person you have to remind. In case I have to remind _you_ , I’m the one who still has the scars!”

And it was the last thing she wanted to be reminded of on a day like that. Her mind was already working overtime due to the Cullen mystery, the animal attack and her nightmares. The last thing she needed was being haunted by memories. She was already distracted enough as it was.

“Then I don’t have to tell you that you need to stay out of this,” continued Janet, not glaring or angry but just looking immensely worried. “Or to not go for long walks in the woods. I don’t want to see you lying pale and motionless in a hospital bed again.”

Rachel turned her back at her and casted a haunted look out of the window as she poured herself another cup of coffee. It was the last thing she wanted too: to wake up and find herself in the hospital with only blurry and unclear memories of what happened. It was scary to say at least, and something she just couldn’t forget.

“Rachel.” The desperation in Janet’s voice made the sixteen year old look at her again. “Please, promise me you won’t get involved in this.”

Rachel stared at her for a moment with a sad look on her face before sighing and casting her eyes down to the floor. “I will try.”

It was perhaps not what the blonde woman wanted to hear but it was the best she could do. She didn’t like breaking promises and therefore she never made them unless she was certain she could hold them. And what Janet had asked her, it was just something she couldn’t promise because there was a big chance she would get involved in it.

Janet sighed, not satisfied with that answer but also knowing she wouldn’t get anything better. “I will try to be home early tonight, okay?”

Rachel just nodded. For a moment it seemed as if the woman wanted to walk towards her and press a kiss on her head but she changed her mind and just left the house, leaving the girl alone with her thoughts once more.

Not long after that, she too left the house with only some toast and a big mug of coffee as breakfast. More she just couldn’t stomach.

As she drove to school, she cursed Janet and her reminder of what had happened during La Baule’s animal attack. Now all the memories that were connected to that resurfaced and haunted her. It made her once again wonder if it would not be better to call in reinforcements. After all, how many times hadn’t she found Charles and her ex in the study while the two of them were working on a new plan to catch the beast? How many times hadn’t she listened to the two of them discussing a new theory of what could possibly be behind the murders? How many times hadn’t she interrupted them to tell them dinner was ready, only to be pulled into the arms of her ex as he jokingly suggested she should help them to try and figure out what or who were behind the attacks? Jokingly and with a wink as he knew that she knew exactly who and what was responsible. 

It was something that made her nervous and shiver. She had known in La Baule what had been behind the attacks, who had been behind them, and she had known she was safe. But this time? She didn’t have a clue and she didn’t like it. She wasn’t used to be kept in the dark, to not know what was going on.

Suddenly a new thought formed itself in her mind. What if the one responsible for the attacks back in La Baule was also the one responsible for the attack in Mason County? Yes, they had caught the “animal” in La Baule and had killed it but she knew that that poor Mountain Lion hadn’t been responsible and that the real killer was still out there.

Rachel’s face pulled itself in an angry scowl and she grabbed her mobile from out of her bag, making sure to keep her eyes on the road. It was so obvious that she was angry at herself for not thinking of it before and she cursed herself and her ex several times.

Her scowl deepened after seeing that she had no reception and she threw the phone back on the passenger’s seat. If she only thought of this last night, then she wouldn’t have had this problem.

It was how Rachel spent the rest of her ride to school, glaring at the road in front of her and checking her mobile to see if she had reception yet. She didn’t get any until she drove on to the parking lot and much to her dismay, the Cullens were the first people she noticed. They were standing by the silver Volvo at the other side of the school and – if she hadn’t thought of them as creepy before she certainly did then – all turned their heads towards her car at the same time as she drove onto the parking lot.

The second thing she noticed was that the parking lot was emptying, indicating she was a little late. It didn’t do her already sore mood any good and it made her scowl only more.

Driving slowly on and scanning to see if there was still a spot open, a spot as far away as possible from the Cullens, she noticed something that made her anger grow and forget about everything else: there was a crow sitting on a lamppost and staring straight at her car.

It wasn’t the first time she had noticed it and like every time before, her heart ached upon seeing it. But the ache did not outdo her anger and her eyes narrowed in a dangerous glare.

“Son of a...”

Rachel never got to finish her sentence as something hit her car from the side and pushed it to the left. The moment she was hit, her head was thrown against the glass and she felt it crack before only seeing stars and sensing a painful throb. She could hear a faint screeching and some screams but was too disorientated to see where it was coming from.

Her car slipped further, the speed at which increasing, and simply by following her gut, she pulled on the wheel while hitting the break. She did not know what happened next but the world spun some more, her head was thrown to all sides and her seatbelt was digging into her body.

And then everything stopped.

Rachel gasped for breath but immediately started coughing as she found she had trouble breathing. Her eyes slowly opened but the world was still dancing around her and what was even more confusing, was the fact that the light kept switching from dark to light.

She quickly squinted her eyes shut again when a feeling of nausea came over her and tried to listen to what was happening around her. But she didn’t hear much. There was a very annoying buzz in her ears and other than that she could only hear faint background sounds, sounds that were too low for her to make out.

Her head began to throb more painfully again and her right leg hurt and felt as if there were shards of glass sticking out of, which probably was the case. The nausea didn’t disappear and became worse when panic took her over.

Rachel’s eyes fluttered open again, only registering for a moment that the light had settled on dark, and the panic immediately grew when she registered that she was hanging upside down. Sometime during the crash her cap had flipped and was now lying on its roof on the asphalt.

Another coughing fit took her over and caused her seat belt to dig painfully in her shoulder. She abruptly stopped coughing when a new feeling made an appearance, a feeling that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up: fear. Something dangerous was heading her way, something very dangerous, and her gut told her she needed to move and get as far away as possible from whatever was heading her way.

Her hands flew towards the seat belt connector and she furiously tried to unbuckle it but the connector refused to unbuckle. Her breathing fastened as she tried again, being very aware of the fact that the danger was creeping closer, but it didn’t move an inch.

“Please,” begged Rachel her seatbelt as she tugged and tugged, her voice and breaths shaking and her hands trembling. “Please. Please.”

But the connector still wouldn’t unbuckle her seatbelt and the danger was only coming closer, so close that she could hear the footsteps belonging to the dangerous person. Her breathing only quickened and the panic made tears run down her cheeks.

“Please…”

Some black shoes and the end of some jeans appeared at her side of the car, at the level of her eyes, and her head screamed to run or else she would die. But she couldn’t move and the person was starting to kneel down. So she did the only thing she could think of: she screamed as hard as she could, not holding back on how terrified she was.

She faintly registered that someone was saying her name but she didn’t response and just kept screaming at whoever was kneeling beside her. It apparently helped because the person was yanked away, so hard that her whole car shook.

Rachel groaned lowly as it did, her seat belt digging deeper into her torso and her legs aching, and her scream faded when the shoes disappeared. Although her head was still warning her that danger was near, it wasn’t yelling at her anymore that she would die if she remained where she was.

Still, when another person appeared beside her and leaned down through the broken window, she screamed again in reflex and tried to move away. In the progress she hit her head against the passenger’s headrest and her seatbelt dug so deep in her torso that it gave her another coughing fit.

“How is it going in there?”

She _knew_ that voice.

The fear immediately disappeared and was replaced by relief as she slowly turned her head towards this new person and saw that it was in fact who she thought it was. She was so relieved that she breathed out his name between her coughs and started to cry.

“Hey there, sweetheart.” She pressed her hands against her eyes to prevent herself from crying harder. “You look stuck.”

“It’s my seatbelt,” told Rachel him, tugging on the unrelenting belt again and showing that it really wasn’t willing to budge.

“That can easily be fixed.” He stood up and her door was opened, or more like practically ripped out of its hinged. Not a second later he was back on his knees and this time he was almost completely with her in the car. “Now, we are going to do this just like last time.”

“ _Last time…?_ ” Rachel blinked as he spoke those words but said nothing. She couldn’t. No words came over her lips and every time she tried, her head only started to hurt more.

“I want you to put your hands on the roof and on the count of three, I will unbuckle your seatbelt and get you out of here.”

As he said the words, something in the back of her mind told her that it all sounded very familiar and that yes, there had been a last time. Her head started to hurt more as she thought of it and tried to remember.

It had been dark and it had happened in the middle of nowhere. A deer had been involved as well as someone whose face she couldn’t remember and she had been driving too fast as she had been desperately trying to get home and she had been crying. Something had been urgent and she had wanted to ask someone about that something. But she couldn’t remember when it exactly had happened, nor the exact details around it.

Rachel groaned and squeezed her eyes tightly shut as her head started to hurt to the point where it became too much. All the thinking and trying to remember hurt. And then there was this nagging feeling that, just like last time, there was something on her mind, something she needed to ask.

“Rachel.”

Her knight in leather jacket called her back to the present and she slowly opened her eyes and turned her head towards him. The light had changed again and was bright and painful now. Behind him she could see several other feet and the legs and she could faintly hear people talking. No, not talking but shouting and screaming. The voices were too loud to be talking.

“Rachel,” he called to her again, and her eyes darted towards him again. His blue eyes were urging her to focus but she had trouble with it. Her head just hurt so much. “Stay with me, sweetheart. Just focus on me. It’s just the two of us, no one else. Just keep your eyes on me.”

Rachel wanted to nod that she understood but the only thing it did was made the nausea return and the pain worsen. She groaned and pressed her hands against her eyes. “My head…”

“I know, sweetheart. I know,” he shushed her. “Someone will take a look at that after I get you out, but I need your help to do that. Do you understand?”

“Hmm-hmm,” was all she could bring over her lips.

“Good. Now place your hands on the roof and I will unbuckle your seatbelt and get you out.” She slowly raised her hands and placed her shaking hands on the roof. “That’s it. Good girl. Now, I’m going to count to three.” She nodded, still with her eyes squeezed tightly shut. Her head was now really killing her. “One, two, three.”

He pulled on the seatbelt and it immediately unbuckled, causing Rachel to fall out of her seat and with a small summersault on the roof. She would have landed in all the glass hadn’t it been for the fact that her saviour had caught her before she could hit the ground.

He carefully pulled her out of the car and carried her away from the wreck. “ _Just like last time_ ,” spoke a small voice in the back of her mind.

“You okay?” There was worry in his voice and it sounded so… _alien_. “Can you stand?”

The world was spinning again but she was out and that was good so she nodded and tried to sit up in his arms instead of hanging like a rag doll in them. “Hmm-hmm.”

“Does anything feel broken?” She groaned as she shook her head and he carefully placed her on her feet. “You’re not bleeding, that’s good. But you do have a nasty bruise on your head.”

Rachel nodded but couldn’t really register what was happening. The world was still spinning and her head hurt and she was tired, so tired. She tried to stand up straight but her legs weren’t cooperating and disappeared from under her. Luckily he was still holding her and gently laid her down on the ground, still holding tightly on to her and keeping her half up.

“Rachel, open your eyes.” Two fingers wrapped themselves around her chin and moved her head. “Look at me. Focus. You cannot go to sleep, you hear me? Do not under any circumstances fall asleep.”

Her eyes flickered open for a moment and she looked at him, just as he asked her to do, and when she did, when she stared in those familiar blue eyes, she remembered why she had been driving so fast last time and what had been on her mind not moments ago.

“They are not animal attacks,” she whispered, more to herself than to him.

Two dark eyebrows knitted themselves together. “What?”

But that was it. More her head and the conscious part of her mind couldn’t handle and the last thing she registered before blacking out was him calling her name and telling her not to fall asleep.

* * *

When Rachel returned to consciousness the first thing she noticed was that her entire body hurt, like an anvil – a very large and heavy anvil – had landed on top of her. The second thing she noticed was that there was a very annoying “beep-beep” sound coming from beside her. And the third thing was that something was stuck in her right arm.

Her eyes slowly flickered open and she pinched them quickly half shut when she looked straight up to a very bright, almost blinding light. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust and for her to realise there was a lamp hanging above her.

A hand carefully took hold of hers. “Rachel?”

Rachel turned her head slightly and saw that Janet was sitting beside her. She was still in uniform and looked immensely worried.

“Janet?” croaked the sixteen year old.

The worry disappeared in an instant and was replacement by relief. “Oh, Rachel! Thank God, you’re awake!”

But Rachel wasn’t paying attention to her anymore. The room she was in had caught it. It was small and had a strange smell, the walls were painted a dull pistachio colour and the floor was covered in broken white tiles. The bed she was lying in was standing in the middle of the room and on her right, behind Janet, was standing a heart monitor and an IV, an IV that was attached to her arm. Someone also had changed her into some sweat pants and a tank top. The changing thing she wasn’t too happy with but at least she wasn’t wearing an ugly hospital gown, for that was something she realised the moment she saw the room.

“I’m in a hospital,” she breathed out, half in shock.

Janet’s hand gripped hers tighter. “Yes, you are. Do you remember what happened?”

She didn’t but when Janet asked her, something stirred and came back. “There was an accident,” she answered slowly as the memories came back. “I was trying to find a parking spot at school and my car was hit by I think another car. I don’t remember how it happened but my car flipped.” She groaned as she realised what happened and hid her face in her hands. “Not again.”

Janet rubbed her back. “There, there.”

“I have the worst luck ever,” complained the sixteen year old, raising her head and glaring at the room she was in. “And I can’t believe I’m in the hospital again.”

She hated hospitals but that had everything to do with the simple fact that if anyone would discover she had the ability to heal herself in an unnatural fast way and through that that she was different, than it was in an hospital. She tried very hard to stay out of them but that was harder than it seemed.

“Don’t think about that.” Janet pushed her daughter’s hair lovingly out of her face. “You’re alright and that’s all that matters.”

There was something in the way she said that made Rachel frown and raise more questions with her. “Janet,” she started. “What exactly happened? How did I get out? Who was driving the car that hit me?”

Janet pushed her hair back again, but this time her hand was shaking and she looked extremely uncomfortable. “Let’s not get into that now. You’re still recovering.”

Rachel’s eyes narrowed. “Janet.”

“You should get some more rest,” continued the blonde woman, quickly standing up. “You heal fastest that way. I will go tell Charles and Dr. Cullen that you’re awake.”

Rachel scrunched her nose. “Dr. Cullen treated me?”

Janet glared slightly. “He was very worried about you and checked everything, just to make sure he hadn’t missed anything and you were absolutely fine. You should be grateful.”

Rachel huffed. She did not believe for a moment that it had been worry that had driven him to test her so thoroughly. Curiosity was more like it. She also wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that he and his family had been hoping she had ended up with some head trauma and would never wake up. That certainly would take their problems away.

“And if it wasn’t for Edward, you would have ended up with a lot more injuries.”

The sixteen year old crooked an eyebrow. “Do tell how Edward Cullen exactly prevented further injuries.”

“He managed to stop your car from spinning by grabbing some heavy stones and using it as a wall to stop it, and according to Dr. Cullen it was the spinning that caused the most damage,” told Janet her, still glaring slightly. “You were very lucky he was making his way to school and was near where you crashed.”

Rachel opened her mouth to make a snark comment but abruptly closed it and frowned. “Wait, did you say he was making his way to school and not near the entrance at all?”

Janet eyed her a little suspicious and answered carefully: “Yes.”

Rachel’s frown deepened. That wasn’t right. She remembered quite clearly that he had been standing with his siblings by his stupid Volvo, the Volvo that was parked practically right beside the entrance. There was no way he could have gotten so fast to where she had been driving and therefore nowhere close to where she had crashed. And where had he gotten the stones from so fast?

Something wasn’t right and she still had the feeling that Janet wasn’t telling her something.

“So was he the one who got me out?”

Janet’s glare immediately disappeared and was replaced by a nervous laugh. “No, he wasn’t. He tried but decided to leave it to the professionals.”

“He tried?” repeated the brunette and the blonde nurse nodded.

Her frown deepened again. She remembered her gut telling her to run or she would die and it tended to tell her that whenever the Cullens were around. So the only conclusion she could pull was that it had been Edward she had screamed at while being stuck.

“Janet,” she tried again. “Who got me out of my car?”

But Janet shook her head and abruptly stood up. “We will talk about that later, okay? Try to get some more rest. I will be back after telling Charles and Dr. Cullen that you are awake.” She pressed a kiss on her head, causing the girl to pull a face. “I might get some coffee from the cafeteria. Do you want anything?”

Rachel gave her a unimpressed look. “Yeah, some answers would be great.”

Janet simply rolled her eyes and left, leaving the sixteen year old alone with her thoughts. She tried to put her memories in chronological order but soon discovered that most of them were too blurry to really make out where she had to put them and that she was also missing a handful.

Breathing out a frustrated sigh, she fell back into her pillow and stared up at the ceiling. What to do now? She wanted answers and for some strange reason, Janet wasn’t willing to give them.

She abruptly sat up again and her eyes started sparkling when she suddenly got an idea. If Janet wasn’t willing to share then she just had to find someone who was.

Rachel pulled the IV out of her arm and removed the wires that attached her to the heart monitor. It immediately started to make noise and the line went flat but she ignored it and pushed the covers off her body and got out of bed.

The latter she might have done a little too fast because the moment her feet hit the ground, the world danced in front of her eyes again and her legs collapsed from under her, not ready yet to carry that much weight after such an event.

She managed to catch herself by grabbing hold of the bed and pulled herself a little more up, blinking while doing so in a try to make the world stop spinning. It took a few moments but luckily she got it under control. Then she took a few careful steps, staying near the bed just in case, and when that too went without a hitch, she marched out of the room.

The hallway she entered, she almost immediately recognized from her last visit – the one where she had roomed through the entire hospital to try and find Janet – and knew the waiting room wasn’t too far away. And if she knew her fellow students from Forks High as well as she thought – and she did – she would find at least one or two gossipers there waiting for news on how she was doing, and they should be able to give her some answers.

As it turned out, half of her class at Forks High was waiting there. They were either talking to each other or reading a magazine. They certainly hadn’t expected to see her yet, as they gasped and jumped up the moment they noticed her.

Angela and Laney were the first to reach her and hugged her tightly, telling her at the same time how worried they had been and how hard they had prayed for her to be alright. The rest followed and expressed how happy they were to see her. Mike looked even so happy she was worried he would kiss her.

After that was over, the question burning on everyone’s lips was spoken and came from Jessica. “Should you be up already? When they loaded you in the ambulance you looked almost dead.”

“I’m fine,” smiled Rachel. “It was the shock from what happened. The scans showed that nothing was broken or off. I don’t even have a concussion.”

“Wow,” breathed Lee out. “You certainly had more luck than Tyler.”

That caught the sixteen year old’s attention. “Tyler was driving the car that hit me?”

“Yeah,” nodded Connor. “Poor guy slipped on ice and then hit gas instead of break.”

“How is he doing?”

“He is still in surgery,” told Jessica her. “He broke his leg pretty badly. They are also afraid he has a concussion.”

“Of the two of us, I really am the lucky one,” sighed Rachel, shaking her head softly. “Did anyone else get hurt?”

“No,” answered Laney, still with her arms half around her. “Edward managed to stop your car before any more damage could be done. If he hadn’t…”

The grim faces said enough. If Edward hadn’t managed to stop her car from spinning, more people would have gotten hurt. At least she could thank him for that.

“It was really scary,” continued Angela. “When he tried to help you were screaming bloody murder and we thought something must be really wrong. Luckily that didn’t seem the case and that man was able to get you out without any trouble.”

Rachel’s attention was immediately caught again. “What man?”

“You tell us,” responded Gianna, grinning slightly. “You knew him. Quite well by the way he talked to you.” Rachel just blinked and stared at her as if she had grown another head, causing her to roll her eyes in a dramatic but teasing way. “Totally gorgeous, black hair, blue eyes, dressed in black.”

It felt as if someone had dropped a bucket of water over her when Gianna started to describe the man. “Was he wearing a leather jacket and a large ring on his finger?”

“So you do know him!” Gianna’s grin immediately returned. “Who is he? Come on, you have to tell us. We’re your friends!”

But those words fell deaf to the brunette’s ears. Her heart was hammering so hard in her chest that she heard nothing but the blood bumping through her body. He was here, in Forks. He had gotten her out of the car and saved her life yet again.

“Is…” Rachel pinched her eyes close and hated how vulnerable and broken she sounded. “Is he still here?”

“You just missed him,” answered Gianna carefully, sounding worried. “He stayed with you the whole time. He even drove with you to the hospital. But when your parents arrived, he and your dad left.”

Rachel opened her eyes and stared at her. “When was this?”

“Not five minutes ago.” The tanned girl took a step closer. “Are you sure you’re alright, Rachel? You’ve gone really pale and I don’t like the way you’re shaking.”

“I’m fine.” She didn’t sound fine and she certainly wasn’t feeling fine but that was not what mattered at the moment. “Which way did they go?”

“The entrance but, Rachel, I really think…”

The rest of the words fell deaf again as Rachel took off in a run, determined to get to the entrance and find Charles and her saviour. Especially her saviour. There were things they needed to talk about, things she needed to tell him.

She was almost at the entrance when she saw Charles. He too was still dressed in uniform and he was talking to Dr. Cullen. Despite really not wanting to Dr. Cullen or any of the other Cullens to see her in the state she was in at that moment, she got over it and simply ran up to them, asking in her most demanding voice: “Where is he?”

Both of them were shocked to see her out of bed and in front of them. “Rachel?!” stuttered Charles, looking as if he was about to pass out himself. “What are you doing out of bed?!”

She ignored his question. “Charles, where is he?”

The man’s eyes softened. “Rachel, sweetie, you should not be out of bed. I think it’s best…”

“WHERE IS HE?!” interrupted the brunette him. “Charles, where the hell is he?! I need to talk to him!”

“Rachel…” started Charles, his eyes softening only more.

He tried to grab her hands but Rachel immediately pulled them out of his grasp and took a few steps back. The feeling that she was too late, slowly crept up on her and brought tears in her eyes.

“Charles, where is he?” she asked again, her hands shaking once more and her sight blurring with tears. “Did he go back to the room I was in?” The police chief sighed and shook his head, whispering her name and taking a step towards her. But she immediately took one back again and ran a hand through her hair, her eyes darting around in a desperate try to find him. “Outside then? He never liked hospitals. Did he go outside?”

 “Rachel.” Charles took one step towards her and grabbed hold of her arms, forcing her to not run away again and to look at him. When she looked him in the eye and saw the pain in them, the sympathy, she knew what was coming next. “Rachel, he left.”

Rachel stared at him, shaking, on the brink of tears and feeling as if someone had just drove a knife through her heart. “He left…?”

Charles nodded as he let her go, the pain growing in his eyes. “Yeah, he left.”

She let out a shaky breath and bit her lip as she looked around, trying to urge her tears back but failing to do so. She tried to get her head around what happened, to process everything and come to the conclusion it was alright. It didn’t matter.

“He’s not coming back, is he?”

Charles carefully took her shaking hands into his. “I’m sorry, sweetie.”

Rachel closed her eyes, biting her lip even harder and trying really hard not to burst out in tears. He left. He saved her life and then simply left, without saying hello or goodbye or even giving an explanation. He just left.

She wanted to cry, so badly. She wanted to crawl away under some rock where no one would ever find her and cry her eyes out.

She opened her eyes and looked at the man in front of her. “I want to go home.”

A doubtful look spread over Charles’ face. “I don’t know, Rachel.”

“I feel fine,” told Rachel him. “There is nothing wrong with me. And I just really want to go home.” She gave him a pleading look, the need to burst out in tears growing. “Please.”

“I don’t think that is a smart idea,” interfered Dr. Cullen before Charles could say anything, causing the girl’s eyes to abruptly snap at him. “You were after all in a car accident. I think it is for the best if you stay here overnight…”

“I want to go home,” interrupted Rachel, squeezing her hands into fists and glaring at him. “And you can’t hold me here. All your examination showed the same thing and that was that there is nothing wrong with me. No brain damage, no broken bones, no bleeding wounds, not even any internal bleeding. And I’m awake and up now, so give me one reason why you should want to keep me another night here.” She turned to Charles again, trying very hard to contain her anger. “Please, Charles. I want to go home. Can you please sign the papers and get me out of here?”

Charles glanced at Dr. Cullen for a moment before sighing and nodding. “Alright. I will sign the papers and then take you home.”

Rachel could hug him, or cry, when he said that but kept herself together. “Thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there lovely readers,
> 
> It has been a while since my last update but I hope you all will think it was worth it. I'm already busy with the next chapter and I've a lot of inspiration so do not worry. I will update soon again (I hope).  
> A few things on this chapter. You will have noticed a large difference from the original Twilight story, namely that Edward isn't the one who saved Rachel. This unknown person who I have described but have not named, will make another appearance in this story but much later on. In the sequel I have planned he will be named and you will all officially meet him :D  
> Also in the Twilight version Edward and Bella have a conversation in the hospital, something which is something Rachel and Edward don't have. There will however be a confrontation between him and Rachel in the next chapter as I really wanted to write that down.  
> I think that's it for now. I hope you all liked this chapter and I hope to hear from you.  
> Till next time.


	8. The First Confrontation

**Chapter 7: The First Confrontation**

“ _These documents recorded anything from scientists and serial killers to witches and other supernatural beings._ ” 

* * *

 Rachel was sitting with her head in her hands and waiting for Charles. Dr. Cullen had agreed to discharge her but only if Charles and Janet would wake her up every two hours throughout the night and ask her some basic questions, just to be sure she did not have any brain damage. He also prescribed her some painkillers, advised her to take it easy the next few days and he wanted to see her for control in two days.

She thought it was all bullocks. Why did she need to come for control or be awoken throughout the night if all his tests came back negative? Her gut was telling her that he just wanted to see her again so he could examine her some more and that pissed her off. Really pissed her off.

It wasn’t just that what she was angry about. Although the pain and sadness was still very much present, she could not help but be angry at her saviour for just leaving like that. He could have at least had the decency to say goodbye but no! He just had to leave the moment she woke up, like a thief in the night.

“What was I supposed to do? Just stand back and watch as tens of people got injured? Yeah, that would have been a great idea. Jasper is already struggling enough with his control without there being a blood bath.”

Rachel slowly raised her head when the shushed and very angry voice of Edward Cullen reached her ears.

“Oh, don’t pretend you did this for Jasper. No one is buying it, Edward,” said another voice. It was soft and despite being filled with anger, not unpleasant to hear. She had heard it before but only ever in her head. “You interfered because you’re obsessed with the new girl. And did you even think for a moment about the consequences of your actions? What if someone had seen you?”

“No one has,” gritted Edward, sounding very frustrated. “And everyone is buying the story.”

“Except little miss sunshine,” threw Rosalie back, causing Rachel to slowly rise to her feet and move towards where they were apparently arguing. They were talking about the accident and about her. This she had to hear. “You don’t know if she is buying it and you will never know for sure. None of us will!” Rosalie sounded furious. “What if she finds out, huh? What are you going to then? You and your obsession are putting us all at risk!”

“I am not obsessed with her!”

“You could have fooled me.”

Rachel smiled and could not help but agree with Rosalie. She would call it a infatuation, though, rather than an obsession.

“What Rosalie means, Edward –” cut Dr. Cullen in, who was apparently present too. “– is that if she finds out, she will put herself in grave danger. We simply need to be more careful around her and try our hardest to prevent her from finding out. Because if she does…”

“Yeah, I get it,” interrupted Edward, sounding really frustrated. “But that is IF she finds out, with the emphasis on _if_.”

Rachel had heard enough and looked around the corner. The three were standing so close together that their heads nearly touched. Rosalie looked furious, Edward looked frustrated and Dr. Cullen looked worried.

“You know –” she started, leaning against the corner with her arms over each other and a scowl on her face. “ – it is really rude to talk about someone behind their back.” The three jumped slightly and quickly looked up. It was evident that they had not noticed her there, nor had it been their meaning for her to hear any of it. “And to ruffle your feathers some more, I didn’t buy the story even before I heard this. Now I’m buying it even less.”

“Do you know it is rude to listen in on someone’s private conversation?” snapped Rosalie back. The fury in her eyes made her stomach clench and her gut warned her again that these people were dangerous, very dangerous.

“Oh, I know. I just don’t give a shit,” responded Rachel, giving her a cold look back. “And as I was the subject of your private conversation, I think that charges me from violating your privacy and stuff.” Rosalie looked anything but pleased with that answer, but the sixteen year old ignored and focussed her eyes on Edward. “You and I, Mr. Cullen, need to have a little talk about what happened during the crash, and I suggest you give me that talk or I might start saying things that are in contrast with the story you spread.”

Edward clenched his hands into fist and looked only more frustrated, nonetheless he have her a stiff nod. Rosalie opened her mouth to protest – her eyes were practically spitting fire as she was that furious – but Dr. Cullen placed an arm around her shoulders and guided her away. It seemed that only angered her more because she glared furiously and her lips moved too fast and in a very fierce way.

When they were out of sight, the strange boy walked up to her and glared at her. “What do you want to know?”

“Well, for starters I like to know how the hell you got so fast over to my car because I might have hit my head and some of my memories might be a bit blurry, but I remember very clearly that you were standing with your siblings by your car at the other side of the parking lot. You were not anywhere near me. So…” She glared back at him. “How did you get there so fast?”

Edward pressed his lips in a thin line. “Should you really be out of bed yet? It sounds to me like you hit your head pretty badly.”

Rachel poked him harshly in his chest, giving him her most intimidating glare. “Don’t change the subject, Mister, and don’t push this on my none existing head trauma. The scans cleared me from that and everything before the crash I remember perfectly well.” She put her arms over each other and gave him a daring look. “I also distinctively remember that I was screaming at you when you got too close. I wonder why that was.”

Edward pressed his lips even tighter on to each other. “Probably because you were hanging upside down and were scared.”

“Bullshit,” shot Rachel back. “I’ve been in a car accident before and back then I was also hanging upside down. Yes, I was scared but I was calm and had everything under control. Back then I only got really terrified and started screaming when my head started telling me that something dangerous was coming closer. And guess what? That was exactly what happened when you got too close to me.” Edward opened his mouth to respond but she beat him to it. “Try telling me I’m wrong and it’s all in my head. I dare you. You won’t like my reaction, trust me.” He quickly closed his mouth again. “I know what I saw and heard, Mr. Cullen. You and your family aren’t human.”

“Nobody is going to believe you,” was his cold response.

Rachel crooked a daring eyebrow. “Are you really sure about that? You guys slipped up a few times and I’m not the only one who noticed. You bloody know it too.” Edward swallowed and moved his feet a little, a sign that she was getting somewhere and pressing the right buttons. Otherwise he wouldn’t feel nervous or uncomfortable. “All I have to do is drop a few hints and wait. They will figure it out themselves. But to calm your nerves and prevent one of you showing up in the middle of the night to kill me…” Edward’s eyes widened and she waved it off with her hand. “Don’t look so shocked. Your weird brother tried to sedate me before and it didn’t work. And he certainly isn’t the kind of man who sits back and allows himself to be threatened. He’s a man of action and if I have it right, there’s not a thing he wouldn’t do to get rid of the threat, and let’s face it: I’m a threat.” She waved her hand in his face again. “But I’m drifting off. As I said, to calm your nerves and make sure I live a little longer – and I like being alive, just to let you know – I’m going to give you my word that I won’t tell anyone.”

Edward blinked, both in shock and suspicion. “Then why do you want to know so badly?”

“Because I want to know what I am dealing with,” answered Rachel. “Knowing what you are means knowing what I can expect and that’s safer for me. And I know you don’t want me to know and I understand that. I don’t like people digging into my life and looking into my secrets either. Nonetheless, I’m not going to stop until I know.”

“Why can’t you just thank me for helping and let it go?” snapped Edward, his anger clearly spiked by her confession that she wasn’t going to stop looking into it.

Rachel glared coldly at him and said in a cold and very sarcastic tone: “Thank you for making me scream my lungs out. It was a great experience, feeling that much fear, so thank you so much.”

Edward’s eyes darkened a little. “You’re really not going to let this go, are you?”

“I’m not known for giving up,” answered the brunette drily, giving him an unimpressed look. “So not a chance in hell.”

The strange boy glared. “You won’t like what you will find.”

“Let me be the judge of that.” She glared back, not being intimidated by him at all. “I can assure you I’m very good at developing my own opinion.”

“Fine,” hissed Edward. “But you better prepare yourself for disappointment.”

“You’ll be surprised with how hard it is to disappoint me,” was Rachel’s response, hearing Charles’ thoughts coming closer. “And just to let you know, you and your family aren’t the first supernatural things I’ve encountered.”

His eyes widened in surprise and he opened his mouth to ask but at that moment, Charles walked up to them. He shot the bronze haired boy a suspicious look before turning to the brunette. “The papers are signed. Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah,” answered Rachel, giving Edward another unimpressed look. “Nothing interesting comes out of his mouth anyway.” Charles shrugged, accepting that answer, and the two walked towards the entrance again. But Rachel stopped after only taking a few steps and turned back around to the strange boy, giving him a cold look. “ _Why_ did you interfere?”

Edward looked down. “I don’t know.”

“Figures,” muttered Rachel, rolling her eyes and walking after Charles.

The man was wearing a small smile. “You really don’t like that guy.”

The sixteen year old snorted. “Whatever gave _that_ away?”

* * *

_Night had fallen by the time she left Paris and made her way back home. Despite that, it was still busy on the highways and she had to keep her eyes on the road and her mind focussed on her driving. But when she left the highway and drove on to the provincial road, there was not a car in sight._

_She was all alone and she had taken this road so often, that she did not think she needed to keep her focus on the road. She put the cruise control on and for the first time since she had left Paris, she allowed herself to dwell on what she had just discovered._

_The animal attacks that had terrorized poor La Baule were not animal attacks at all. Sure, there were more than enough animals that ripped someone’s throat open but she did not believe there was an animal out there that drained its victims from blood. If it hadn’t been for the injection wounds, she would have actually believed a Vampire was at work._

_The thought made her shiver. It was one thing she could do what she could. It was another entirely that Vampires were real and not just monsters you read about in books._

_Nonetheless, a human was at work and behind the attacks that killed so many, including one of her friends. A very messed up human who ripped people’s throats out and drained them from blood. It was a scary thought and it made her sick. How could anyone kill a person and then proceed in maiming them like that?_

_“No,” reminded her head her. “Not kill and maim them but maim them in such a way that it killed them.”_

_She shuddered. Yes, they were dealing with one messed up human being._

_Her eyes turned to the road but despite looking at it, she wasn’t focussing on it. No, she was still debating whether or not she would tell her father about her findings. She knew he didn’t want to get her involved and he would ground her for the rest of her life if he heard she had impersonated a coroner and sneaked into a morgue to interrogate the coroner working on the animal attacks._

_A part of her wanted to tell him, felt like she should. But another part was scared. The coroner had been scared and had, despite of her findings, called the brutal attacks the work of an animal. She knew the truth but had apparently been so scared in such a way that she refused to tell the truth. And there was only one person who would know the truth and not want it to come out: the killer._

_Her eyes abruptly filled themselves with tears when she thought of that. The killer had threatened the coroner in such a way that she had refused to tell the truth. What was stopping him from doing the same to her or to her father? She knew the truth now and if she would tell her father, he would make work of it. She would put them all at risk._

_She pressed a hand against her forehead and let out a broken sob. She felt so conflicted, so scared. What was she to do? She did not think she could live with not telling anyone what she had discovered, but she also knew she certainly wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she did tell and her parents got hurt because of it._

_She took in a shaky breath as she realised she couldn’t keep it all to herself. She had to tell at least one person and then maybe they could figure out together what to do with this new information. But who?_

_Despite still crying, she scowled as she quickly came up with a name. She really didn’t like him but he was the perfect person to talk too. After all, hadn’t he been the one to express the theory that the attacks weren’t the work of an animal?_

_She hit the gas as she made up her mind, tears still falling down her cheeks. She needed to talk to him, this instant. She could not keep this to herself any longer._

_Her eyes snapped up as her mind registered something blocking her lights. She gasped and hit the break when she saw that in the middle of the road, there was standing a deer with a fawn. But her car was still going too fast and then, on instinct, she pulled on the wheel._

_The next moment the world was spinning, glass was falling and cutting her, and she was thrown in every direction. The shopping bags on the backseat flew towards the front and the file she had kept, the one that had been lying beside her, flew right out of the broken windows._

_She let out a cry of relief when the car finally stopped but that cry quickly turned to distress when she realised she was hanging upside down. Hadn’t she been in such a nasty situation she would have laughed at the irony. Only last night they had had a discussion about it being almost impossible to cause a car to roll and flip._

_She slowly pressed her hands on the roof and pushed herself more against the seat to get her seatbelt to stop digging into her skin. This turned out to be a bad idea. There was glass everywhere and it immediately cut into her hands, causing her to hiss and pull them back. The leverage was then taken away and she cried out as she abruptly hang into her seatbelt again._

_Her eyes once more filled themselves with tears but she bit her lip and forced herself to keep it together. If she lost it, she would never get out._

_Taking a deep breath in, she carefully placed another hand on the roof and pushed. It wasn’t easy and it was very painful and it made the tears in her eyes sting but she kept it together. With her other hand she grabbed her seatbelt and tried to unlock it. Something clicked but nothing happened. She tried again but still nothing. After trying to four more times, she gave up with a frustrated sigh and allowed her tears to start rolling. This wasn’t going to work._

_Her eyes drifted towards her handbag that luckily hadn’t been tossed out of the car during the crash. If she could get her hands on it, she would able to call 112. She would probably get in trouble for driving underage but that didn’t weigh up against her current position._

_She reached and groaned in pain and in frustration when her seatbelt dug even deeper into her skin and refrained her from grabbing her handbag. Shifting slightly, she tried again but this time she froze._

_The hair on the back of her neck slowly stood up and her gut screamed. It yelled and kicked and screamed even more, begging her to get out and run. It was telling her she would die if she stayed where she was and if it told her that, it meant trouble was nearing._

_Leaving her handbag for what it was, she turned her attention on her seatbelt again and tugged, as hard as she could. Nothing happened. She tried again but still nothing. Meanwhile her gut started to scream louder and louder and the hairs on her neck were nearly doubling over with how straight they were standing._

_Her seatbelt still wasn’t cooperating and she started to panic when she realised she was a sitting duck. That thought bothered her and not being known for giving up and doing nothing, she started to think. What could she use?_

_The answer came from her hands. She had cut them on the glass and that meant… Without hesitating she lunged for a large shard of glass and took it firmly in her already bleeding and painful hands._

_And then she waited. Her gut was screaming bloody murder and she could hear footsteps coming closer, and someone breathing very loud. She could not help it: she started to cry and to shake. She tried to be strong, she really did, but she was terrified. Absolutely terrified._

_Two sneakers appeared beside her car and she held her breath as she stared at them. Was that blood on them? The person wearing them slowly started to kneel down and that was when her fear got the better of her. She screamed as hard as she could, holding the shard as hard as she could causing it to dig painfully in her palm._

_The person didn’t even flinch away but just when she would see the face, he stood up and ran and suddenly he was gone. Her scream died down the moment he disappeared from eyesight. She was still shaking and crying though, and still holding the shard in front of her._

_Where had he run off to? What had scared him away?_

_“Rachel!” Her head slowly turned when she heard someone call her name. “Rachel!”_

_“In here!” she called back._

_New footsteps hurried closer and not ten seconds later, a new person was kneeling beside her car. “Hey there, sweetheart.”_

_She dropped the shard and closed her eyes, pressing her hands against them. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy to see you.”_

_“And here I thought you seeing me was the highlight of your day. Ouch.” She lowered her hands to glare at him, not that it was much of a glare as she was still crying. “Are you alright?” He sounded worried and truly concerned. It suited him. It made him look more human. She could not help but stare, feeling as if this was the first time she really saw him. “Rachel,” he urged. “Are you alright?”_

_She blinked and shook her head slightly, to get this new thoughts out of it. “Yeah. I’m fine.”_

_“What happened?”_

_“There was a deer on the road.” He rolled his eyes. “It had a fawn!”_

_“You and your bleeding heart.” He did not roll his eyes again but she knew he wanted to. Instead he shot another worried look at her. “You look stuck.”_

_“It’s my seatbelt,” she answered. “It won’t unbuckle.”_

_“That’s not a problem.” He stood up and opened her car door before kneeling down again and grabbing hold of her seatbelt. “I’m going to get you out of here. I just need you to place your hands on the roof and be ready on the count of three. Try to catch yourself and be careful with the glass. You don’t need even more cuts.”_

_She slowly placed her hands on the roof again, listening to what he said about the glass. “Placing my heads on the roof and catching myself on the count of three. I think I got it.”_

_“Good. You ready?” She nodded. “One, two, three.”_

_He tugged on her seatbelt and it finally unbuckled, freeing her and making her fall on the roof of her car. Or that was what she was supposed to do but she didn’t. How he did it so fast, she did not know but not a second after unbuckling her seatbelt he had his arms around her and caught her mid-air._

_She wasn’t complaining. The idea of landing on a roof covered in shards wasn’t really appealing._

_He carefully pulled her out of the car and then swiftly picked her up. “Are you sure you’re alright? Does anything feel broken?”_

_“No…” She groaned when she suddenly felt lightheaded and nausea. The blood was leaving her head and flowing towards her other limbs again, and she had a feeling that the adrenaline was also wearing off._

_She groaned again when the light-headedness grew. “Put me down…”_

_“Are you sure that’s a good idea? You don’t look too good.”_

_“Please…”_

_He carefully lowered her to the ground, removing the arm under her legs, and placed her on her feet. Her legs shook as they had to carry her weight again and she swayed before making her way to the ground again. And once more, he caught her before she could hit it._

_“That’s not going to work,” he muttered, and she “hmm”ed in agreement and small pleasure when he gently brushed his fingers over her face. “Rachel, how many fingers am I holding up?”_

_Her eyes fluttered up towards the fingers he was holding in front of her face but quickly adjusted to his face. She did not want to answer his stupid question, she wanted to tell him something else. So she did._

_“It’s not an animal,” she whispered._

_He frowned. “What?”_  

* * *

Rachel groaned and her eyes fluttered open when her mind registered an annoying buzz beside her on bed. That annoying buzz was pared with a bright light and she closed her eyes, groaning again, as her hand searched for the mobile responsible.

She found it and brought it to her ear, pressing answer. “Hello?”

“ _Ciao, Rachel!_ ” greeted a cheerful voice her. “ _Did I wake you?_ ”

Rachel groaned and rubbed her eyes, trying to register who exactly was talking to her. “Fabiana?”

“ _Sì_ ,” answered the cheerful voice. “ _I really did wake you. Mi_ _scuso._ ”

“No, it’s okay,” yawned Rachel. “What can I do for you?”

“ _Aro asked me to give you a call to see if you were alright_ ,” answered Fabiana. “ _We haven’t heard from you for so long and he started to worry._ ”

“I’m fine,” answered Rachel, suppressing another yawn and running a hand through her hair. “I’ve just been really busy and things has been really hectic. I simply forgot.”

“ _I will let him know_ ,” smiled Fabiana, or Rachel guessed by the tone in her voice she was smiling. That woman just smiled too much. She was almost as bad as Janet. “ _He will be delighted to hear you’re doing well. Can we expect a visit from you soon?_ ”

“Unlikely.” Rachel ran another hand through her hair. “We’ve moved again. We now live in the States.”

“ _Oh, I’m sorry to hear that._ ” She rolled her eyes. She really really really did not like this woman. “ _But you know that whenever you want to visit, all you have to do is call and everything will be arranged._ ”

“I know,” sighed Rachel. “It’s only the three hundred and forty something time I’m reminded of it.”

“ _I can hear you’re still not entirely awake so I will let you go back to sleep_ ,” chirped Fabiana, not sounding offended at all. “ _Buonanotte._ ”

“Yeah, buonanotte…” sighed Rachel, really wanting to press disconnect and just go back to sleep. Her head was still killing her and if she had noticed the time correctly, it was in the middle of the night. But she managed to stop herself in time. “Say, Fabiana?”

“ _Sì?_ ”

“Aro and the others know a lot about the supernatural world,” started Rachel. “Can you ask him if he knows anything about a family called the Cullens?”

“ _The Cullens…_ ” She could hear Fabiana tap with her nails on her wooden desk. “ _The name does sound familiar. I will tell him you asked and have him call you back._ ”

“That’ll be great,” smiled Rachel. “Grazie, Fabiana.”

“ _Prego_ ,” chirped Fabiana back. “ _Buonanotte._ ”

“Buonanotte,” whished Rachel her back before disconnecting the call.

Fabiana was a secretary and she worked for the Volturi family, friends of hers who lived in Volterra, Italy. She had met them almost four years ago while being on holiday in Volterra with Charles and Janet.

The Volturi had this large unground castle where they lived and it had the largest library in the world, if she had to make a guess. That library didn’t only hold books but also a lot of documents. These documents recorded anything from scientists and serial killers to witches and other supernatural beings.

The archives were normally locked away and only the highest members of the strange family were allowed to access it. Rachel was the only outsider who was allowed in the archives and it was a privilege she had gladly used during her previous stays there.

If she had the money to get on the first plane to Volterra and search the library for any information on the Cullens, she would have done so already but unfortunately her income had temporality been put on hold.

That reminded her, she really needed to go to Seattle soon.

She glanced at the clock again and groaned when she saw it was five past one. Why oh why had Fabiana chosen to give her a call on the night after she had gotten a car accident?

Her head was still killing her but that was probably because she had cried her eyes out for hours when she had finally gotten home. Janet’s lecture about being irresponsible, reckless and having no self-preservation – the one she had to listen to after the blonde nurse had gotten home – hadn’t helped either.

Neither had that stupid dream.

Rachel rubbed her eyes again before rolling on her back and staring at the ceiling. It was only natural the car accident had brought back memories from France and she had dreamed about the car accident she had had only half a year ago. Especially when the same man had gotten her out of the wreck.

She grabbed her spare pillow and put on her head, screaming loudly in it. He was so frustrating! One minute he was all nice and concerned and the next he was being an asshole and left without saying a word. She hated him!

She removed the pillow from her head and threw it away from her. She stared up at the ceiling again and tried to get her mind on other things. Things that had nothing to do with the stupid car crash, her stupid saviour or the stupid Cullens.

That turned out to be a lot harder than expected because it seemed she could think of nothing else. Why had he left? Why was he in Forks in the first place? What were the Cullens? How had Edward gotten so fast to her car?

Rachel groaned and pressed her hands against her eyes again. She was contemplating to take some more of the painkillers Dr. Cullen had prescribed her – it was good stuff that knocked you out faster than you could say drugs – but she had already taken some not four hours ago so that would be a little fast.

She slowly lowered her hands again. “I need a drink.”

And that was when her head reminded her of a small but very annoying fact. Charles had his liquor stored away in a wooden cupboard and had that cupboard under lock and key, and she did not have a car because it had been wrecked in a stupid car accident.

Rachel grabbed the pillow again and screamed in it. “I hate my life!”


End file.
